When elders at a mosque in Rugby learned that imam Noor Walile, above, had raped a boy, they banished him to India to avoid prosecution.
But Walile, 38, who claimed that “the devil made him do it”, later returned to the UK and he was arrested at a house in Leicester, according to this report.
He has now been jailed for six years after he pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court.
Judge Stephen Eyre QC told him:
The members of your community entrusted their young children to you for guidance and education. You were in a position of responsibility and leadership at the mosque. You abused that position and that trust, and defiled the faith you were paid to uphold.
He was a young boy entrusted to your care for guidance, and you raped him. It is hard to think of any greater abuse of the trust that had been placed in you.
If you had not pleaded guilty, the sentence would have been one of nine years.
The judge branded Wallie “an offender of particular concern” who would not be released before serving the whole of the six years if the Parole Board considers it safe to do so and will then be on licence for an additional 12 months.
The judge added that in addition to a sexual harm prevention order restricting Walile’s contact with any child under 16, he will be barred from working with children and placed on the sex offender’s register for life.
Walile was working in the mosque in 2010 when he raped the boy in some toilets while he was supposed to be teaching children.
His parents contacted an elder who advised them to save the clothes the boy had been wearing and not to wash them. The mosque elder and the parents then confronted Walile.
Prosecutor Jane Sarginson said:
Initially Walile denied the allegations, but then said he had done something ‘very bad’ but he could not remember what happened only that the devil had come over him.
He was told he would have to go back to India and never return, or the matter would be reported to the police.
Officers then traced Walile who initially denied raping the boy or confessing it to the mosque elder.
But once he was told the family had kept the clothing, he confessed:
I have told lies during this interview. I am sorry, I did a bad thing. The devil came over me, and I did this bad act.
Anthony Bell, defending, said:
When the incident happened he took the advice to leave the country and go to India; but he returned to this country to be with his family and his wife, who is a British citizen.
Hat tip: BarrieJohn