Batley man who fled UK jailed for serious sexual offences

A man from Batley who fled the UK after being charged with rape over 25 years ago has been jailed.

Maboob Bostan used a false passport to leave the country while on bail after being charged with sex offences in 1998.

54 year old Maboob pleaded guilty to the three rape charges at the start of his trial.

This was after incidents involving a teenage female in Batley in January 1997 and a woman in her 20s, also in Batley, in February 1998.

A breakthrough in DNA evidence linked Bostan to a further rape involving a female victim aged in her 30s in Manningham Park, Bradford, which took place in September 1997.

Bostan was arrested at Manchester Airport in January this year when he flew back into the country from Pakistan of his own accord.

Bostan, formerly of Purlwell Hall Road, Batley, was jailed for 24 years with an extended licence period of six years.

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Inspector Stephen King, of West Yorkshire Police’s Major Investigation Review Team, the team behind Operation Recall, said: “First and foremost, my thoughts go out to the victims in this case who have had to wait so long to see justice being done. I hope this brings some comfort and closure to them.

“Maboob Bostan chose to flee the country rather than be answerable for his crimes, but we never gave up on bringing him to justice.

“We sought his extradition back to the United Kingdom as recently as 2022 after further investigation by the Operation Recall team provided us with a forensics breakthrough that linked him to the Bradford offence.

“I have no doubt that Bostan is a dangerous individual and a risk to females wherever he is, so I’m pleased that justice has finally been done and he has been given a lengthy jail sentence.

“We have specialist child and adult safeguarding teams working across West Yorkshire and I would urge anyone who has been the victim of sexual offences to contact us.”