The family of a Muslim boy sexually abused by his religious teacher at a mosque today said awareness of the issue must be increased in the Asian community.

The 11-year-old - who cannot be named for legal reasons - is deeply traumatised by his experience and the ordeal of giving evidence, his uncle said.

Muslim religious teacher Hafiz Amjad has been convicted of two indecency offences and may now face jail.

A jury at Bradford Crown Court took nearly four hours to find Amjad guilty by majority verdicts of a charge of indecency with the boy and indecent assault on a ten-year-old girl.

The defendant had contact with children through his religious tuition role at a mosque in Horton Grange Road, Bradford. Recorder Stephen Williamson QC adjourned the case until February 25 for a pre-sentence report.

In granting Amjad bail he said: "The fact I'm going to let you go home today doesn't mean that you won't go to prison in February.''

The boy's uncle said after the case: "We have a big problem in our community with this type of thing, but it usually gets hushed up because of the respect issue.

"The other problem is that all kinds of people are teaching in mosques and it is not regulated properly."

He said his nephew, now 12, had found the court case traumatic. Both offences were committed in Bradford in April and May last year. Amjad, 32, of Cobcroft Road, Huddersfield, made emphatic denials to the allegations after his arrest.

After the case, Stuart Gallimore, of Bradford Council's child protection team, said talks took place last year between social services and the Council for Mosques to provide them with draft guidance.

Ghulam Rasul, of the Council for Mosques, said: "As the Council for Mosques we can only issue guidance, we can't force them to act. Certainly if this teacher has done something wrong he should be punished and condemned."

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