Man guilty of sex abuse of children while teacher at mosque

Hafiz Fazal had been on trial at the Lowry in Salford, operating as nightingale court during the pandemic.

He faced 17 charges said to have taken place while he worked at the mosque between February 1993 and August 1996.

Against the first complainant he faced six charges of indecent assault including that he grabbed his chest and squeezed it.

The 66-year-old was convicted of all of these charges.

Against the second complainant he faced ten charges of rape.

He was found guilty of seven of these.

The jury found him not guilty on three charges which state he carried out the act on no fewer than ten occasions between various time periods.

He was found guilty of four single counts of rape and of rape on no fewer than ten occasions between November 1994 and September of 1995.

Fazal was accused of a single indecent assault against the third complainant by grabbing her breasts and elsewhere.

He was found guilty of this offence.

The jury reached its verdict after almost two days of deliberations and after passing multiple notes to Judge Mark Ford including to see bits of evidence again.

Fazal had denied all the charges against him.

When first interviewed by the police in relation to the first complainant he admitted there had been a single incident where he took him into an office, pulled his trousers down, thrust his body against that of the child before pulling the trousers back up and telling him to leave.

He said the devil had come inside him but he had been saved during the incident.

But when on the stand he claimed he had been scared when he made this confession.

The proceedings against Fazal, some 25 years after his abuse took place, began when the first complainant heard about an inquiry into child abuse on the radio and decided to visit it in 2017.

Fazal, of New Earth Road in Oldham, will be sentenced tomorrow for the 14 charges he was convicted of.