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| Ebrahim Yusuf Kazi, 67, sexually assaulted three victims - all aged under 11 |
Source/Credit: This is Gloucestershire
By Leon Watson & others | November 03, 2011
A 'scheming' Muslim paedophile has been jailed for two years after abusing young girls while teaching at a mosque as an Imam.
Ebrahim Yusuf Kazi, 67, sexually assaulted three victims - all aged under 11 - during class as he taught groups of youngsters alone inside the mosque.
He would invite the girls to read a passage from a book in front of the other children - before touching them indecently, a court heard.
He also locked himself in a toilet cubicle with one of the girls, removed her clothes and assaulted her.
Kazi's campaign of abuse only surfaced 27 years after his horrific sex crimes, when the victims finally decided to speak out.
After the assaults he moved to Gloucester where, the court heard, he had become a respected member of the community.
The girls wept as they saw Kazi jailed for two years after being convicted on five counts of sexual assault at Swindon Crown Court yesterday.
Judge Euaun Ambrose told Kazi he would have jailed him for longer - but was prevented from doing so by the law.
He said: "You were in a position of very considerable status, trust and authority.
"It was a position of total power and respect - not only within the mosque but also within the local Muslim community.
"You were trusted by those who attended the mosque. You were also trusted by the parents who sent their children to be taught by you.
"However, you wasted the opportunities the position gave you and indecently assaulted three of these children.
"All were pre-pubescent girls and all were entrusted to your care.
"This was a gross breach of trust. Against all this you continue to deny any responsibility for these offences and have shown no remorse.
"There has become much stiffer sentences for this type of behaviour but I am obliged as a matter of law to sentence you in regard to the law at the time.
"Had these offences been committed more recently the sentences that I pass would be much, much longer."
Stephen Dent, prosecuting at Swindon Crown Court, said Kazi preyed on the youngsters while Imam at the town's Broad Street Mosque, between June 1979 and April 1985.
Kazi's three devastated victims - aged around eight, nine and ten when the abuse started - claimed each terrifying and repeated episode could carry on for as long as 15 minutes.
After grooming one of his victims - a family friend who Kazi labelled his 'favourite' - he then took her to a toilet cubicle where he continued to abuse her over a number of years.
The court heard that the respected cleric was 'revered' in the girl's family, as he had a close relationship with her father, so she did not speak out.
When one of the other girls told her parents what Kazi did to her - the defendant angrily branded her a 'liar' and the allegations went away.
Another family pulled their girl out of the mosque, after her brother witnessed the abuse.
Kazi's crimes lay undetected for 27 years, until his victims finally decided to confront him.
They were forced to give evidence against Kazi at the trial last month which convicted him of five counts of sexual assault.
Judge Ambrose, quoting from impact statements of the three victims - now all grown women - said one still had nightmares about the abuse.
They all said it continued to affect their lives.
Martin Steen, defending, said Kazi had moved to Gloucester since the offences and was now a respected member of the community.
He claimed that Kazi, who is suffering with bad health and depression, has had to install panic alarms in his home since his grave secrets came to light.
Mr Steen handed the judge 24 letters from community members, praising Kazi. One woman said she would never think twice about leaving her child with him.
He said: "Perceptions have changed and in the mean time this man has changed. He has behaved impeccably in terms of support given to the community."
As well as jailing Kazi for two years, Judge Ambrose also imposed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order against him.
Speaking after the sentencing, PC Dawn Simmonds, from Wiltshire Police, branded Kazi a "scheming paedophile".
She said: "I am frustrated that the court could not impose a longer sentence. He is a scheming paedophile.
"But I am pleased the judge has recognised the offences that Kazi did.
"As abuses of trust go it was the ultimate really and will effect the victims for the rest of their lives.
"Not only did he subject these children to these despicable acts but he has shown no remorse for his actions, having now also put them through the ordeal of a trial.
"I would like to thank the victims for having the courage to come forward."
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