Rochdale imam who bullied and beat children as young as 10 in religious classes jailed


Rochdale imam who bullied and beat children as young as 10 in religious classes jailed

An imam who bullied and beat children as young as 10 in his Islamic study classes has been jailed.
Abdul Rauf, 51, admitted 21 separate charges but a judge at Manchester Crown Court took around 80 attacks into account.
Police said they saw evidence of “consistent assaults” on children recorded by a CCTV camera inside a mosque teaching centre in Rochdale.
They were alerted to the abuse by a report that two boys had been assaulted by Rauf in October last year and say they do not know how many victims have been affected in total.
The court was told that the children were left cowering and holding onto their ears, their arms and their legs after he repeatedly used violence as a punishment.
The parents of the children had no idea that they were leaving their children in the care of a man who would leave them writhing in pain and covered in marks and bruises.
Rauf, of Sussex Street in Rochdale, has been jailed for one year and 5 months after admitting actual bodily harm against two boys aged 10 and 12 and a further 19 assaults on unidentified children.