A convicted sex offender has admitted kidnapping a six-year-old girl and attempting to molest her in Burnley, Lancashire.
Imran Khan, 34, of Accrington, pleaded guilty at Preston crown court on Monday to charges of kidnap, kidnap with intent to commit a sexual offence and breach of a sexual offences prevention order.
He already had a conviction for a sexual offence involving a 12-year-old girl in 2008 and was on the sex offenders’ register.
Lancashire police are reviewing how he was able to reoffend when supposedly under supervision in the community.
At around 4pm on Thursday 26 March this year, the six-year-old girl was playing on Nairne Street in Burnley when she was taken by Khan and bundled into the boot of his black Vauxhall Astra car.
She was driven four miles to Scarth Lane, Hapton where Khan exposed himself and tried to force her to commit a sexual act. He then dumped the girl and she was found in a distressed state by members of the public.
DI Jim Elston, from Lancashire constabulary’s major investigation team, said: “This was a horrendous offence, which would have been terrifying for any adult – let alone a young child.
“We continue to offer support to the victim and to her family and we welcome [the] verdict and look forward to a sentence which reflects the gravity of Khan’s offending.
“Imran Khan was a registered sex offender living in the community after he was convicted in 2008 of a sexual offence involving a 12-year-old girl.
“While we have rigorous systems in place to manage sex offenders who have served a sentence and been released into the community, this cannot happen 24 hours a day and unfortunately on occasion an offender may go on to commit a further offence as happened in this case. Thankfully that is relatively rare.
“There is currently a review on-going into this particular case and we will clearly look carefully at the results of that to see if there are any lessons we can learn.
“In Lancashire we have specialist teams of police officers and staff who lead the management of sexual offenders in our communities. In addition, those considered to be of a certain level of risk are managed by various agencies including the police, probation, and the prison service through multi-agency public protection arrangements (Mappa).
“Eligible Mappa offenders are identified and information about them is shared by the agencies in order to inform the risk assessments and risk management plans of those managing or supervising them.”
Khan will be sentenced at Preston crown court on Friday 23 October.
