FUGITIVE rapist Wakar Akhtar is set to spend Christmas and New Year in an Italian prison after choosing to fight extradition.

Akhtar, 21, was tracked down to the north of the country after fleeing Bradford halfway through his trial at the city's Crown Court.

He was convicted in his absence and sentenced to 17 years imprisonment, along with three co-conspiratorsTamseel Virk, 42, Azad Raja, 38, and Najeem Ul-Saeed, 31.

They were involved in a "despicable and inhuman plot" to abduct a vulnerable young school teacher.

She lost consciousness after drinking with friends in Leeds and was driven from Leeds to Bradford in minicab by Virk to be delivered to Raja and his nephew Akhtar who took it in turns to rape her in darkness in Horton Park.

She came round to find one of the men having sex with her on a park bench.

Akhtar drove to Dover, hours after giving evidence in his defence at Bradford Crown Court, and caught a ferry to Calais.

He was arrested at a block of flats in the northern Italy town of Brescia after West Yorkshire Police circulated his description across Europe through Interpol.

The senior investigating West Yorkshire Police officer, Detective Chief Inspector Steve Snow, said that Akhtar had appeared before a High Court judge in Brescia for an initial extradition hearing, at which he was asked whether he consented to extradition or proposed to challenge it.

Det Chief Snow said: "My understanding is he said he did not consent. I am led to believe he will next appear before an extradition court, which may decide he has no grounds to challenge extradition."

He said he had been in contact with prosecutors in Rome and it was hoped the next hearing would be held fairly quickly.

But Det Chief Insp Snow added: "It is highly unlikely he will be back in the UK before Christmas. I am hoping he will be extradited early in the New Year.

"I am liaising with the Italian authorities. We have provided the information to demonstrate that there is sufficient evidence to extradite Akhtar."

Det Chief Insp Snow said that once extradition had been granted, West Yorkshire detectives would travel to Rome to execute the bench warrant issued by the trial judge, Jonathan Durham Hall QC.

Lawyers for Akhtar, of Hudson Avenue, Canterbury, Bradford; and his co-conspirators, Virk, of Marten Road, Canterbury; Raja, of Hudson Avenue; and Ul-Saeed, of Beaumont Road, Girlington, Bradford, are lodging appeals against convictions and sentence.

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