A 26-year-old man has been jailed for 15 years for brutally raping and sexually abusing a vulnerable young girl.

Shakeel Ahmed, who came to the UK from Pakistan in 2003 when he married a Bradford woman, was led to the cells at Bradford Crown Court in handcuffs.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told him: “You are guilty of the persistent and sordid abuse and assault of a young girl you groomed until the point when you forcefully and brutally raped her.”

Ahmed, who lived in Thornbury, Bradford, fled to Scotland out of shame or fear after abusing the child when she was aged between nine and 12, the judge said.

The jury found Ahmed guilty of twice raping the girl and eight offences of sexually assaulting her. He was cleared of two allegations of indecent assault.

The judge said it was a horrifying case. Ahmed began preying on the girl after his wife gave birth to their first child.

She was abused repeatedly and persistently from the age of nine.

Ahmed told her she would be killed by family members if she told anyone.

She told police he played a game pretending they were married and putting a scarf on her head before sexually assaulting her.

In May last year, she finally plucked up the courage to tell a school friend and a learning mentor after Ahmed had left Bradford.

West Yorkshire Police arrested him in Ballater in Aberdeenshire where he worked as a waiter.

The judge branded Ahmed “arrogant, callous, uncaring and indifferent”.

He dumped his wife, although one of his children was dying, and then put up a ludicrous defence in court.

The judge said Ahmed would stop at nothing to avoid the consequences of his actions.