An Islamic teacher who sexually abused a young girl as he taught her the Koran has been spared prison after a court was told he is on benefits and his wife speaks ‘very little English’.
Suleman Maknojioa, 40, repeatedly rubbed the 11-year-old’s leg and even reached underneath the long folds of her prayer headscarf to squeeze her chest whilst giving her and her two brothers private tuition in Arabic.
Maknojioa was said to have ‘favoured’ the girl and believed the touching was ‘appropriate’ and given to reassure her.
But the confused girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, found herself becoming frightened whenever lessons were due for fear of what the tutor would do to her.
He was reported to police after the child’s mother overheard her two sons, aged 13 and seven, talking about the incidents in the kitchen.
On the day he was arrested, father of six Maknojioa, a highly-respected Hafiz, was due to teach 30 children at a mosque near his home in Blackburn, Lancashire.