Locations
Blagden Street, Sheffield, S2
Description
A “trusted” Muslim cleric who repeatedly raped a young boy whilst working as a teacher at a Bradford mosque has been handed an extended jail sentence.
Mohammed Hanif Khan will serve 13 years in prison plus a further three years on licence for a series of sex attacks on the victim more than a quarter of a century ago.
Khan, 57, of Blagden Street, Sheffield, appeared via video link from HMP Leeds for the hearing at Bradford Crown Court.
His victim was present in the public gallery to see justice done.
Sentencing Khan, His Honour Judge Christopher Smith told Khan: “You were a respected member of the teaching staff.”
He said his “outward and respectful appearance masked a devious and perverted sexual interest” in underage boys.
The judge added: “And you grossly abused the trust placed in you by colleagues and the parents of the children in your care in order to commit these terrible offences.”
He added: “You secured your victim’s silence by telling him that he would not be believed if he reported you.
“Regrettably, opportunities were missed to bring your offending to an end when other individual members of staff found you in suspicious circumstances but failed to report matters to others as they should have done so.”
Judge Smith said the extended sentence he passed reflected the danger that Khan continued to pose to the public.
He also referred to Khan’s previous conviction for “strikingly similar” behaviour at Stoke-on-Trent in 2009, for which he received 16 years’ imprisonment in 2011.
His offending in Bradford pre-dated the Stoke assaults.
Judge Smith said Khan could have brought those earlier rapes to the attention of the police when he was charged with the Stoke offences “but you chose not to do so”.
He said: “I am satisfied that you do continue to present a risk of committing such offences.”
The judge said that while he was being sentenced for the offences of more than a quarter of a century ago, “there has been further serious offending of a strikingly similar type in the intervening period”.
“You accept only limited responsibility for your actions and there is a continuing lack of genuine insight,” he said.
“Although you are now in your late 50s you may be eligible for release from the sentence I impose in your mid-60s and I am not satisfied today that ordinary licence provisions will protect the public for the appropriate length of time at that point.”