‘Dangerous’ Bradford man jailed for 19 years over child sex offences

From the Telegraph and Argus.

Khalil Ayub, 39, was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court last Friday after being found guilty of 12 sexual offences against three female child victims in the Bradford district. 

The 39-year-old was found guilty of offences including rape and sexual assault in a unanimous verdict by a jury following a trial at Bradford Crown Court.The offending took place between 2013 and 2019.

He will have to serve two thirds of the sentence before he can be considered for release and sign on the sex offender’s register.

DC Alaine Stocks of the Bradford District Safeguarding Unit, said: “We welcome this significant sentence imposed by the court against Ayub. He committed some dreadful offences against child victims who were in no position to defend themselves and I wish to pay tribute to their bravery in coming forwards and helping us convict a clearly very dangerous man. Sexual predators such as Ayub need to be taken of our streets and we can promise that all reports of sexual abuse will be investigated both thoroughly and sympathetically…”

I cannot find any news report of this man’s progress through the courts from Magistrates Court to Crown court, or a report of the beginning of his trial, or its progress. Maybe they were in the print editions and didn’t make it on-line. The local newspaper the Telegraph and Argus, and web based news The Bradford Zone both took their reports directly from the press release of the West Yorkshire Police. No reporter at court. Nothing in the national press (that I can find) 

I don’t know whether this was to protect the prosecution of previous or forthcoming trials, whether so many of these cases have been dealt with in recent years that the press and reporters have become blase and uninterested. or whether the authorities and media, knowing how outraged the public are about the mass rape gangs preying on little girls are now deliberately playing down their extent. While at the same time the police need to have it known that they are now dealing with the crimes, having been strongly cricised for not being firm enough in the past.