Posted on 09/22/2022 6:23:55 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A judge said the sentence should not be seen in any way as deprecating the experiences of his victim.
A trusted imam who raped a young schoolgirl in a mosque has been given an absolute discharge due to his dementia. Khandaker Mohammed Rahman pushed the child into a washroom and attacked her, and then went on to sexually assault her on further occasions when she attended the religious and cultural centre by touching her breasts and bum.
However, the 67-year-old former religious leader is now suffering from vascular dementia and significant cognitive impairment. Passing the unusual sentence on the pensioner, the judge said it should not be seen in any way as deprecating the experiences of the complainant.
The sexual offending took place at a mosque in south Wales in 2005 but it was not until 2018 that the victim told her husband about what had happened to her as a child, and the matter was reported to the police. Rahman twice stood trial at Swansea Crown Court in 2020 but both those trials were abandoned due to illness, with the second trial in November of that year ending after the jury was discharged when a juror tested positive for Covid.
In December 2020 the defendant suffered a heart attack, and following that developed onset dementia. After being examined by doctors for both the defence and prosecution he was found to be unfit to stand trial in the conventional sense, so the jury in Rahman's third trial in June this year was asked not to determine his guilt or innocence but to determine whether he did the acts alleged by the prosecution.
After deliberating for two hours and five minutes the jury found that Rahman, of Gwilym Street, Cwmdu, Swansea, did the acts alleged, namely one count of rape of a child under 13, and two counts of sexual assault. Sentencing was adjourned for psychiatric and pre-sentence reports. The case returned to court on September 20 for a sentencing or disposal hearing.
The court heard two psychiatrists who had examined Rahman in recent months had both come to the conclusion that given the nature of the defendant's condition, neither a hospital order under the Mental Health Act nor a supervision order with input from probation was appropriate in his case. Judge Huw Rees said Rahman had been assessed as having significant cognitive impairment with moderate dementing illness, likely vascular in nature, which was not susceptible to treatment but to care. He said: "The defendant is not suffering from a mental disorder within the meaning of the Mental Health Act, and in any event his current presentation is not of a nature of degree that meets the criteria for detention and treatment in a hospital."
The judge said the sentencing options open to the court were limited in such circumstances, and that he reminded himself that under s5 of the Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964 a court may make an order for an absolute discharge of an accused who has been found to have done the act or omission alleged or to be not guilty by reason of insanity where the court considers that in all the circumstances it would be the most suitable disposal.
The judge imposed an absolute discharge for each of the three offences to run concurrently. He added: "The disposal is peculiar to the Insanity Act and should not be treated as deprecating in any way the experience of this complainant."
During Rahman's trial the jury heard evidence from his victim in which she described how he had asked her to accompany him to the library of the mosque before pushing her into a washroom where she fell and banged her head. She then described how the defendant got on top of her, and how she felt a "stabbing pain" between her legs as he moved up and down. The woman described being "face to face" with her attacker, and his "very strong" smell of body odour. She said the incident only lasted a couple of minutes, and that she then pulled up her trousers and ran out of the mosque to her father who was waiting outside in a car.
She also said she had made excuses not to go back the mosque again - something which was a big step for a child from a "devout Muslim family" - but on the few occasions she did attend Rahman touched her breasts and bottom. The woman said she felt guilty she had not reported the assaults sooner, and was concerned he may have done similar things to other females.
As the defendant was unable to give evidence and did not attend his trial, the jury heard details of his original police interview following his arrest at Heathrow Airport in which he described the allegations against him as "lies, lies lies". The jury also heard from a number of character witnesses who knew Rahman either professionally or through being former pupils of his at the mosque. It was the defence case that the victim had wrongly identified her assailant.
a classic
stay away from this creep...
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