"The children called you 'uncle' - 81-year-old Koran teacher jailed for child sex abuse

An 81-year-old former Koran teacher who was convicted of a string of child sex offences has been jailed for 13 years in the UK.

Mohammed Haji Sadiq taught for 30 years at Cardiff's Madina mosque and abused four girls as a form of punishment.

He was found guilty of eight sexual assaults on a child under 13 by touching,  

and six indecent assaults after a trial at Cardiff Crown Court last week. The court heard Sadiq, of Cyncoed, "took advantage of his position".

He had denied the charges involving four girls aged between five and 11 and blamed "politics" in the mosque for the accusations. But sentencing him, Judge Stephen Hopkins QC told Sadiq:

"The children called you 'uncle' as a mark of respect. You are a man in my judgement of some cunning. Beneath the veneer there is a dark and deviant side."

Sadiq, who was a part-time Imam, sexually assaulted two girls under the age of 13 by touching, and indecently assaulted two other girls over a decade between 1996 and 2006 at the Woodville Road mosque.

He abused them if they made a mistake while reciting the Koran and would use a stick as a form of punishment in class, hitting people over the hand or hard on the back.

Some of his victims said they were afraid to attend the mosque because of his abuse. One said she had attempted to take her own life because of the abuse.

In victim impact statements read to the court, others said they felt they could not tell anyone about the abuse because of the culture they grew up in.

The court heard one victim feared the consequences of speaking out following Sadiq's conviction.

"Due to my religion it was very difficult, almost impossible to tell anyone what had happened. In the Muslim religion we do not talk about personal matters"