Mosque teacher convicted of sexually abusing girls

Published on Friday 21 November 2008 08:55

A MOSQUE teacher who tried to escape justice by fleeing to Pakistan has been convicted of sexually abusing two young girls.

Mahmood Qadri attacked the children at Edinburgh's Polwarth Mosque while supposedly helping them learn the Koran.

The 60 year-old was accused of molesting the girls over a three year period in the 1990s.

Qadri denied the allegations during a trial at the High Court in Glasgow, but a jury today found him guilty of two charges of acting in a lewd and libidinous manner.

It emerged after the verdicts that he had originally been due in the dock in 2005 – but his lawyer told a judge that he had gone back to Pakistan to carry out "relief work" following an earthquake.

It was only in May this year that Qadri was finally found when police detained him in Germany and he was returned to face justice.

Judge John Morris QC deferred sentencing until next month and remanded Qadri, of Manchester, in custody.

The victims – now both 19 – told the jury that Qadri attacked them in a bedroom at the mosque during Koran lessons.

One woman, referred to as Miss X, denied lying and making up a story although did admit that when she told a teacher at her school about the abuse, she initially claimed to have been raped.

Another, Miss Y, later said she started going to the mosque when she was aged seven or eight and claimed she was also abused in the bedroom.

Prosecutor Simon Bowie asked: "How long did the abuse happen?"

She replied: "When I started there until he left – he left before I did. He left years before me – I was there until I was 12."

Mr Bowie also asked: "How frequently did the abuse take place?"

Miss Y told him: "Every day I was at the mosque."

Miss Y said she never saw Qadri after he left the mosque. She also told the court it was only later, after Miss X had made a complaint, that she spoke out.

She said she had not done so before as she was "scared" and thought "people would laugh" at her.

Mr Bowie asked: "These events were some time ago. How confident are you that these events took place?"

She told the prosecutor: "Very confident as you don't forget something like that happening to you."

Qadri was convicted of abusing Miss X between January 1 1995 and September 30 1998

He was found guilty of abusing Miss Y between January 16 1997 and September 30 1998.