Malkiat Rai, 59, from Salford, has been jailed for seven and a half years for sexually abusing a child in the 1990s. The sentence was handed down at Manchester Crown Court after a retrial earlier this month found him guilty of four counts of indecent assault and two counts of indecency with a child.
Victim's statement
The victim, who was a child at the time, read a statement in court. She said: 'What you did did not affect one moment of my childhood - it affected the course of my entire life.' She described the trauma causing 'anxiety, depression, sleepless nights and fear that I never asked for'. She added: 'Not once have you acknowledged what you did, let alone apologised. Even now, that lack of accountability hurts deeply and amplifies the fear that people like you exist.'
She told the court she had been put through two trials: 'Two occasions where I have had to relive the most painful experiences of my life in front of strangers.' She said she still has flashbacks and plans years of therapy.
The offences
The court heard that Rai was in his mid-20s at the time of the offences. On one occasion he 'tricked' the victim into his house; on another he 'opportunistically took advantage' of her after a 'chance meeting'. Rai continues to protest his innocence.
His brother Jaswant Singh Rai was jailed for three years and 10 months in 2024 for five counts of indecent assault and one count of indecency with a child against the same victim. He was a teenager at the time.
Sentencing
Judge Kate Cornell told the defendant: 'You should have most definitely known better.' She noted a 'pattern of sexual offending' but that Rai had 'no substantive record of sexual assault in recent years'.
Prosecutor Rachel Faux said Rai has 24 previous convictions for 34 offences, including sexual assault of a woman, theft and robbery. Mitigating, Dudley Beal said Rai has several medical conditions including psoriasis and severe arthritis in his knees, and limited literacy, which would make prison 'harder than for the normal man'. Beal added that Rai had 'come to terms with going to prison for a substantial period of time'.
Rai, of John Atkinson Court, was jailed for seven and a half years, with an additional year on licence. A restraining order was also imposed.
