AN ISLAMIC teacher who tried to silence two boys he sexually abused by threatening them with black magic was today jailed for 12 months.

Self-styled faith healer, Kamran Bashir, molested the children, aged 13 and 14, after inveigling them to an address in Bradford to instruct them in the Koran.

He groomed them on Facebook before touching them indecently in what the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, labelled "an absolutely enormous breach of trust."

Bashir, 30, of Duckworth Lane, Girlington, Bradford, was convicted by a jury at Bradford Crown Court last month of three offences of sexual activity with a child.

Prosecutor Andrew Dallas said Bashir touched one boy on his stomach and thigh and tried to grab his penis.

The teenager punched him and bit his arm to get him off.

The second offence happened behind a locked door when Bashir sexually assaulted the boy again.

He molested the second boy, touching his thighs and penis, after inviting him to pray and receive religious instruction.

The court heard that Bashir was held in high esteem in the local community and was believed to have black magic and faith healing powers.

He threatened the boys, telling them: "You both need to pick an oath. If you break the oath bad things will happen to your family."

Bashir also used his self-styled black magic powers to blow in one boy's ear to make him forget.

He was arrested when the boys told their school teachers what he had done to them.

The police and social services became involved, although the boys' parents were very anxious not to have any police involvement.

"It would not have been the wish of the parents for this case to be prosecuted, or to ever see the light of day," Judge Thomas said.

He added that the victims were under many pressures from their families and the local community.

The older boy no longer attended prayers regularly because he had lost his trust in his teachers.

Jayne Beckett, Bashir's barrister, said a petition had been set up to protest his innocence.

He was of good character and a great many people testified to receiving good instruction from him.

Bearded Bashir, who wore dark glasses and walked with the aid of a stick, was registered blind, Mrs Beckett said.

This was an onerous burden for an intelligent man who read and studied a lot.

He had a wife and young children and would find custody very difficult.

"He has a very respectable and supportive family and they are finding the whole process incredibly upsetting and difficult," Mrs Beckett said.

Judge Thomas said Bashir began instructing young boys in the Islamic faith without any child protection measures in place.

He committed an "absolutely enormous" breach of the trust imposed in him by their parents, grooming them on Facebook.

"You were clearly, in a grossly inappropriate way, going out of your way to make very personal contact with these boys," Judge Thomas said.

He praised them for coming forward.

"It is to their eternal commendation that, despite threats, they reported what had happened to them," Judge Thomas said.

He made an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order banning Bashir from having any unsupervised contact with children.