A man who was involved in the brutal Christmas Eve gang sex attack of a woman before going on the run has been jailed for 10 years.

At Carlisle Crown Court today, Mohammed Miah became the third person to be locked up for subjecting the victim - who had been on a festive night out - to a dreadful ordeal in a city flat.

The "extremely drunk" woman was guided about a mile through Carlisle city centre on the false promise of a taxi, "sandwiched" between two other men, in the early hours of December 24, 2017. Inside a flat, Kabir Hussain, 41, then twice raped the female and sexually assaulted her. She was also sexually assaulted by 32-year-old Marco Martins. As they left the room at one stage, 38-year-old Miah walked in and raped the woman having failed to utter a single word to her.

"This is a gang assault," prosecutor Tim Evans told the court. "It is perhaps difficult to conceive of how a Christmas night out could end in greater horror than what she went through at the hands of these defendants."

As a police investigation began, Miah was bailed on Christmas Day, but fled Carlisle and "disappeared" for almost a year until police arrested him in Devon in November. He was snared by DNA evidence.

Miah, of The Strand, Exmouth - previously of good character - admitted rape and was jailed for a decade.

Judge James Adkin told him: "This was a gang rape of a vulnerable woman for whom you showed utter contempt, and you must be severely punished for it." Miah will be on the sex offenders' register for life.

*Hussain, of Dod Street, Tower Hamlets, London, was jailed for 11 years at the crown court in March, 2018, while Martins, of Borland Avenue, Carlisle, received a 45-month prison term.