A PERVERT barber who thrust his hand into a ten-year-old girl’s knickers after enticing her into a hairdressing shop has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Mohammed Abid, 49, showed no emotion in the dock at Bradford Crown Court today as he was led off to the cells after protesting his innocence during a trial.

Abid, was convicted by the jury of sexually assaulting the girl when he was working alone at Sabir’s Hairdresser on Whetley Lane, Bradford, on the afternoon of Boxing Day, 2014.

After the verdict, Judge Peter Hunt praised the child’s bravery for pulling up her underwear and fleeing the shop after she was molested.

Abid, of Dickens Street, West Bowling, Bradford, was made the subject of an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order to protect the girl and other children in the future and he must sign on the sex offenders’ register until further order.

The girl was passing the shop on an errand for her mother when Abid beckoned her in and gave her a lollipop. He touched her stomach and put his hands down her trousers, inside her knickers and on to her bottom.

She pulled up her underwear and fled, telling her cousin and her mother what he had had done.

Judge Hunt told Abid: “The only reason that the child went into the shop was because she saw you beckon her into the premises.

“You had formed a plan to touch her sexually. Before you assaulted her, you gave her a lollipop. This was for no reason other than your own gratification.

“Out of the blue, you placed a hand on her tummy and moved it round on to her bare bottom. You tried to get your hand further and further down inside her knickers but she had the good sense to resist your assault by tugging her underclothes back into position and by running off. It is to your credit that you did not try to detain her after she resisted, or do any more harm at that point.”

Mohammed Rafiq, Abid’s barrister, said he was a family man who had worked hard as a barber. He had no previous convictions.

“It was a short incident, no more than 90 seconds; an opportunistic one,” he said.

  • The owner of Sabir’s Hairdresser wants to point out that Abid was only an employee of the business and has not worked there since his offending came to light