An Islamic preacher who raped young girl 13 years ago was caught after she identified him on YouTube. However, the grandfather-of-three has not been jailed as he is suffering with dementia, according to reports.
Khandaker Mohammed Rahman, 67, raped the victim, then under-13, in a washroom in 2005 in South Wales. Following the incident, she stopped attending the religious centre.
Rahman went unpunished until the victim, now a woman, identified him on YouTube 13 years later. She took a screenshot of a 'side profile' picture of the religious leader on YouTube and then shared it with police. The Imam was later arrested at Heathrow Airport.
The woman told Swansea Crown Court that she fears there may be other young victims.
His trial started in 2020 but was abandoned twice due to illness and Covid. A juror tested positive for the disease, forcing the jury to be dismissed, and Rahman suffered a heart attack and was diagnosed with onset dementia.
At his third trial this year, he was declared unfit to appear in the dock. Though the court was convinced that the Imam raped the girl, it didn't declare him guilty due to his mental state.
During the trial, the woman told the court that Rahman touched her breasts and bottom instead of giving her religious lessons. Rahman denied rape and two charges of sexual assault.
According to her, the incident only lasted a couple of minutes before she pulled up her trousers and ran out of the mosque to her father who was waiting outside. Later, she stopped going to the mosque.
"He agreed to let her leave early if she helped him move some books from the library upstairs. On the way there he pushed her into a washroom and she fell onto the floor banging her head," Prosecutor John Hipkin told the court. "The next thing she remembers is Rahman on top of her."
Hipkin added that the victim disclosed the secret until 2018 when she disclosed it to her husband and police were called in.
Judge Huw Rees ordered that Rahman be cared for by social services, while no Sexual Harm Prevention Order was made.
Thangam Debbonaire (Pic from Wikimedia Commons)
Richard Townshend
