Mosque teacher jailed for seven years over sex abuse

Published on Friday 19 December 2008 20:47

A TEACHER at a mosque convicted of sexually abusing two young girls was jailed for seven years yesterday.

Mahmood Qadri, 60, attacked the girls at Polwarth Mosque in Edinburgh over more than three years in the 1990s.

He was previously found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow of two charges of behaving in a lewd, indecent and libidinous manner towards the children. Judge John Morris QC yesterday told Qadri a jail term was the only appropriate sentence in his case because of the "gravity" of the offences.

Sitting at the High Court in Edinburgh, the judge ordered Qadri to serve an extended sentence of nine years, with seven years to be spent in prison.

When he is released, he will be under licence for a further two years. Qadri will also be placed on the sex offenders' register for an indefinite period of time.

Qadri, listed as a prisoner in Edinburgh, was found guilty of abusing the first girl between 1 January, 1995, and 30 September, 1998, at the Temple Park Crescent mosque. He was convicted of abusing his second victim between 16 January, 1997, and 30 September. 1998.