Jailed Rotherham rapist gets more time behind bars

A convicted Rotherham child rapist who violently degraded his victims has been sentenced to two more years for an indecent assault on another girl in Rotherham in the early 2000s.

Ishtiaq Khaliq, 40, stole a teenage girl’s phone and would not return it unless she performed a sex act in the stairwell of a Rotherham block of flats.

The case was investigated by the National Crime Agency as part of Operation Stovewood, its inquiry into allegations of non-familial child sexual abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

The operation was launched after a set of Government reports found that over 1,400 children had been sexually abused by gangs in the South Yorkshire town.

Khaliq was previously jailed for 17 years in 2016 for rape and three counts of sexual assault alongside seven other men.

Sheffield Crown Court heard at the time how the gang “sexually degraded” their victims and subjected them “to acts of a degrading and violent nature.”

He pleaded guilty to the new charges at a hearing in November.

NCA Operations Manager Stuart Cobb said that Khaliq was a “serial sex offender who intimidated his victims.”

He added: “I pay tribute to all those who have had the courage to come forward and tell us what he did to them.

“Supporting victims remains our number one priority, and we remain determined to seek justice for as many as possible.”