In court:
Jail for man who raped young girl in 90s

A MAN who raped and sexually abused a young girl when she visited his family's home in the 90s has been jailed for 17 years.

Hitenkumar Shah was found guilty of four charges of rape, two of gross indecency and one of indecent assault against the little girl when she was aged around seven and he was in his late teens.

At the end of a five day trial last month, a jury at Warwick Crown Court found the 32-year-old, of Sissinghurst Close, guilty of all seven charges.

And at Birmingham Crown Court, Judge Peter Carr jailed him for 17 years for the rapes, banned him from ever having any unsupervised contact with children and ordered him to register as a sex offender for life.

But Shah managed to escape an indefinite prison sentence after Judge Carr decided he did not consider him to be a dangerous offender.

The court heard how Shah - under the pretext of playing with the girl - mounted a campaign of sexual abuse against her when she visited his house.

Prosecutor Andrew Jackson told the court how Shah and his parents had arrived in the country from Kenya in 1998 and rented rooms in a house in Rugby.

His victim’s family would visit the house to see someone else who also lived there.

On the pretext of playing with her, Shah began a campaign of sexual abuse by taking her into the double bedroom used by his parents, where he raped her.

Mr Jackson said Shah raped the girl in that way on a number of occasions and also sexually assaulted her while she sat in the lounge.

Mr Jackson told the jury: "It was very hard for her to comprehend what was happening until some time later when she received sex education at school.

"She still did not tell anyone, even after she realised she had been the victim of sexual abuse by the defendant, and in fact she felt unable to report any of this until about September 2011."

She told a friend something had happened to her when she was younger, but did not go into detail, and at the end of the year she confided in her mother that Shah had abused her.

It was not reported at that time, but speaking to friends in February last year ‘seems to have given her the necessary courage or determination to take matters further,’ said Mr Jackson, and she went to the police.

Shah claimed to the police and to the jury he had played games with the girl when she visited the house, but denied sexually assaulting her in any way.

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