Cheltenham imam who sexually assaulted young girls sentenced
Imam abused children during Quran lessons in their homes
A 45-year-old man who volunteered as an imam at a mosque in Cheltenham has been sentenced to six years in prison for sexually assaulting two young girls.
Shah Masukur Rashid was convicted at Gloucester Crown Court of two counts of sexual assault on one girl and four counts against another.
The offences were committed between October 2018 and January 2019 when Rashid was 37-years-old.
His crimes were uncovered when the victims, aged between five and seven, were heard discussing Rashid and describing him as “creepy.”
Upon probing, the children revealed that Rashid had inappropriately touched them during lessons on the Quran.
Elizabeth Rushton from the Crown Prosecution Service commented that Rashid "took advantage of the trust placed in him by his community," exploiting his role as a religious tutor to gain unsupervised access to the children, which he then abused to commit these assaults.
Rushton hopes that this conviction demonstrates the determination of the Crown Prosecution Service to secure justice and protect women and girls from such offences.
Rashid was found guilty of six counts of assaulting a girl under 13 by touching.