Kooriyil, an Oxford graduate, raped a 6-year-old boy repeatedly.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
A 29-year-old business manager from Kerala who fled the UK a day before a court sentenced him to imprisonment for abusing a six-year-old boy took refuge at his family home in Parappanangadi, in Malappuram district.
According to a report in The Times of India, the convict Vijesh Kooriyil stayed there for a few days and is again on the lam now.
Oxford Crown Court’s Judge Peter Ross sentenced Kooriyil to 18 years imprisonment on June 2 for raping a boy several times between 2010 and 2011.
But he fled the country a day before the judge pronounced the verdict. His passport was not confiscated as he was on unconditional bail considering he was not convicted earlier.
“Vijesh deployed the all too familiar ways of gaining a child’s trust. He would often call the boy to come and play with him. Some of those games were innocent enough, but others took place in the defendant’s bedroom. It was there, having secured the door with string and a nail, that the defendant began to rape a six-year-old, then seven-year-old, boy,” Daily Mail quoted the judge as saying.
The UK has started an international manhunt to catch Kooriyil, an Oxford graduate. The judge ruled that he will be eligible for bail only after undergoing 12 years of jail term.
Kooriyil went to Oxford to pursue MBA after completing computer science in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. He went missing after media reports came out about the court verdict.
Kooriyil was arrested in Scotland following the revelation of the victim boy after he learned about sex at school.
“He started to feel ashamed about what had happened to him, it made him feel angry and confused. He is very suspicious, not with children, but with adults. He cannot understand why he did such a thing to him,” said Prosecutor David Smith.
Kooriyil’s family members were not aware of the incident and were shocked to hear about the verdict from media.