Female paedophile gets seven years jail, pleads 'shame' is punishment enough
Yahoo News on August 3, 2016, 10:43 am
A woman found guilty of sex offences against a 9-year-old girl has claimed she should not be jailed because the shame brought on her family is "punishment enough".
Raheelah Dar, 43, has been jailed for seven years for sex offences against a young girl, following the failure of an arranged marriage.
Dah was convicted with “isolating” and “manipulating” abuse of the girl several years ago.
Alison Pryor, defending Ms Dar, told the court that her client had suffered mental health issues.
The Teesside Crown Court in Middlesbrough, UK, heard these had "worsened" due to two failed marriages and the death of Ms Dar's daughter in 2008.
Ms Pryor told the court that due to being a Muslim woman convicted of offences against someone of the same sex, Ms Dar had been shunned by her community.
Ms Pryor urged Mr Recorder Tim Roberts QC to consider a punishment that "did not involve a prison sentence".
“The shame that this has brought and will bring upon Miss Dar and her family cannot be underestimated," she said.
According to the Mirror, Ms Dar denied all of the charges.
She was found guilty of three counts of indecent assault and two counts of indecency with a child by unanimous verdicts.
Prosecutor Christine Egerton told the court the assaults were carried out in an “abuse of trust”.
The court heard that Dar, then aged 26, began to groom and abuse the young girl following the failure of her first arranged marriage when she found herself living back with her parents in Middlesbrough.
The female victim is now in her early 20s.
She told the court she had been left "unable to engage with people" after the abuse.
Mr Recorder Roberts QC immediately rejected Ms Dar's pleas for a non-custodial sentence.
“I would be failing in my duties if I did not pass the immediate sentence which I impose today," he said.
“You targeted her as a victim because she was vulnerable.
“You used this opportunity to corrupt her and to turn her against normal relationships between boys and girls in favour of the sexual relationship for which you were preparing her to have with yourself."
Mr Recorder Roberts jailed Ms Dar for seven years.
"She was only nine," he told Ms Dar in the court.
"You were sexually experienced and had been married. She was an innocent. You were crafty.”
Mr Recorder Roberts told the court that Ms Dar was "experimenting" on the child in order to resolve her own internal conflicts about her sexuality.
