A man convicted of sexual assault and extortion who fled the country the day after his conviction has been sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison.The man, who was born in India, was working in Canada when he met a woman on a dating site who was also from India; the woman was the victim of multiple instances of sexual assault and extortion, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice was told."Some of the assaults were brutal, painful, and degrading, when the offender was angry, he would punish the victim sexually,” said Justice Stephen T. Bale.In addition to the assault, the man also threatened to release intimate photos of the woman and used the threat of this to keep her compliant.The offender, who is only identified as a 31-year-old man with the initials H.B. in court proceedings, is said to have "used the threat of exposure of intimate photos to engage her in sex against her will; and as a new Canadian, the victim was vulnerable — the offender told her that no one would believe her, that the authorities would not help her, and that he knew how the Canadian legal system worked and that he would not be held responsible.".The court goes on to discuss how after he sexually assaulted the victim H.B. coerced her to stay with him by saying he had "taken her virginity and that no man on this earth would accept her" and that he would "show the nude photos to her family" if she didn't comply.The victim went on to say that "the offender’s threats to expose the intimate photos of her and to destroy her and her family were terrorizing, leading her to believe that suicide was the only escape."H.B. was convicted of sexual assault and extortion by an Ontario jury on October 30, 2025.The day after his conviction, H.B. reportedly crossed into the United States at Highgate Springs, Vermont, where he then flew from Boston to Zurich, Switzerland.Two weeks later he was then booked on a flight from Abu Dhabi to Boston but "failed to show for the flight.""Based on these facts, Crown counsel argued that it was clear that the offender had absconded and requested that I proceed with the sentence hearing in his absence. I agreed,” the judge said.The current whereabouts of H.B. are unknown; the victim said that she "remains afraid that the offender will share the photos with her friends or family."
