A fugitive rapist, Amar Ilyas, has been sentenced to 27 years in prison in his absence after fleeing to Pakistan while on bail. The 41-year-old, who went by the nickname “Killer” among his victims, was convicted in September 2025 of a series of offences against five girls, some as young as 12, in Sheffield nearly two decades ago.
Detectives from the National Crime Agency (NCA) detailed how Ilyas subjected one child to “three years of relentless torment and rape” from the age of 12, using biting, threats of gang rape and a gun to coerce her. On one occasion he gave a victim a cigarette laced with crack cocaine before raping her. His crimes, committed between 2004 and 2007 when he was aged 19 to 22, included five counts of rape of a child under 13, nine further counts of rape, two counts of sexual activity with a child, three of indecent assault and one count of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
The Ilyas brothers’ sentences
Two of Ilyas’s brothers, Kamar and Kamran, were also convicted earlier this year for offences relating to one of the same victims. On Monday at Sheffield Combined Court, Judge Peter Hampton jailed Kamar Ilyas, 39, for ten years after he was found guilty of one count of rape of a child under 13 and two counts of sexual activity with a child, committed between 2004 and 2006. Kamran Ilyas, 38, received a three-year sentence for two charges of sexual activity with a child committed in 2004. Judge Hampton condemned the trio, saying: “Your victims were targeted, sexualised and, in some cases, subjected to acts of a degrading and violent nature.”
Of Amar Ilyas’s flight, the judge said he had “taken the coward’s route and fled” and urged authorities to use “all means” to bring him back to the UK. He noted that Ilyas continued to “manipulate the proceedings from abroad” while his lawyers argued his community work.
Operation Stovewood: A national investigation
The brothers were arrested as part of the NCA’s Operation Stovewood, the largest law enforcement investigation of its kind into non-familial child sexual exploitation and abuse in the UK. Launched in 2014 following the Jay Review into widespread failings by agencies in Rotherham, the operation focuses on abuse between 1997 and 2013. It has identified more than 1,100 children involved in exploitation and led to the conviction of over 50 people, with sentences totalling more than 1,500 years. The NCA has previously estimated the cost of Stovewood at approximately £90 million. The operation stopped taking on new investigations from 1 January 2024, with fresh allegations now handled by South Yorkshire Police, though criminal proceedings are expected to continue until 2027. A related national review, Operation Beaconport, is also underway to examine previously closed cases of group-based child sexual abuse.
‘Carved itself into the foundation of my life’
Judge Hampton praised the courage of the five women who gave evidence against Amar Ilyas, saying their voices had finally been heard and they had been believed by juries – a sharp contrast with the “cowardice” of the defendant. The victims’ impact statements laid bare the profound and lasting psychological damage inflicted by the brothers’ grooming and abuse. One woman told the court: “For years I have endured the consequences of your actions while being made to feel that my voice did not matter and that I would never be believed.”
Another said: “These three defendants exploited my vulnerability and stole my childhood.” A third described the offending as having “carved itself into the foundation of my life”, adding: “What they did to me didn’t end when the abuse stopped. It’s shaped every year of my life since.” A fourth victim said: “I am a survivor and you are a coward.” A fifth told Ilyas: “I hope you go to hell for what you did to me.”
NCA senior investigating officer Alan Hastings said: “The court heard loud and clear from the women how the Ilyas brothers inflicted devastating suffering upon them, suffering which affects them to this day.” Martin McRobb, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, stated that the brothers had “groomed a young girl with alcohol and drugs” and “preyed on her vulnerability, causing her serious and lifelong harm”. He added: “Amar Ilyas targeted four other young girls and subjected them all to the most horrendous acts of rape and sexual assault… They have now all been held accountable for their horrific and appalling predatory crimes.”
Judge Hampton described the victims as “naive and young, reaching adolescence and susceptible to the attention that was given to them”, noting that some were groomed, others coerced and intimidated, and some “violently raped”. The lifelong consequences of child sexual abuse – including anxiety disorders, depression, PTSD, self-harm, suicidal ideation, and enduring difficulties with trust and relationships – were reflected in every statement read to the court. One victim’s words captured the scale of the harm: “No child should ever have to go through what I did.”
