A rapist who also tried to abduct a ten-year-old girl as she played with friends has been jailed for eight years.

Judge David Hatton QC told Khalid Mahmood that he took advantage of a vulnerable woman when he plied her with alcohol and raped her in Cliffe Castle Park in Keighley in March 2011.

Last month, a jury at Bradford Crown Court found Mahmood, 31, guilty of rape after hearing he met a woman who had lost her purse and had been trying to arrange a crisis loan. The pair had gone to a quiet area of the park and he had shared alcohol with her, before raping her on the ground.

He later called an ambulance for the woman, who cannot be named, after she stumbled as they walked away.

The attempted child abduction happened in July, 2012 when Mahmood made attempts to grab a girl as she played on a scooter with her friends near her Keighley home.

Although the girl told a jury she was initially annoyed, she later became frightened.

Prosecutor Oliver Thorne said Mahmood had left at one point, saying he would not grab the girl while her father was watching, but he returned a short time later. He put his foot on her scooter and held her by both arms. She struggled, but was unable to get away for about two minutes.

Mitigating Kate Batty said there was no evidence to suggest Mahmood’s intentions were sexual.

She said it was a “very sad day” for his family.

“This is a decent hard-working, well educated family who are highly regarded in the local community and it is therefore with great shame that their brother, son and husband finds himself in the dock facing sentence for such serious matters.”

Mrs Batty said Mahmood, who has four previous convictions for indecent assault when he was a juvenile, dishonesty, harassment and persistently soliciting a woman, was starting to realise the gravitas of his actions.

“He appreciates that he has not reacted well during previous sentences, but is what you might call a captive audience now,” she said.

Sentencing, Judge Hatton said: “You were convicted by a jury of an offence of attempting child abduction. When you stopped a ten-year-old girl from going on her scooter and thereafter repeated that on more than one occasion. It was only the arrival of the girl’s mother that caused you to leave the scene.”

Regarding the rape, Judge Hatton added: “You took advantage, there is no doubt, of a vulnerable woman. A woman you saw and immediately appreciated was down on her luck and I am satisfied you saw that as an opportunity, particularly to engage in sexual conduct with her.

“To that end you plied her with drink until she became largely, if not totally, unconscious.”

Mahmood, of Gordon Street, Keighley, was jailed for six and a half years for the rape and a consecutive 18 month sentence for the attempted child abduction.

The judge said Sexual Offences Act provisions would also apply.

After the hearing, DC Alison Hanson of Airedale and North Bradford CID praised his officers and said: “Mahmood took advantage of his victims, seizing upon their vulnerability to commit what are extremely serious offences.

“His actions underlined the threat he posed to the community and I am pleased he has now been placed behind bars.”