Mark Tomassi successfully prosecuted a former religious instructor at Ipswich Mosque for serious child sexual offences, resulting in a 12-year custodial sentence.
The case was heard over a three-week trial, during which the court heard evidence from six victims. The offending occurred over a fifteen-year period, with abuse taking place both within the mosque and at the victims’ home addresses.
The prosecution followed a large-scale police investigation, including extensive witness tracing, as several of the victims, who were children at the time of the abuse, had since moved away from the area.
The court was told that the offences represented a grave abuse of religious trust. Any claim to good character or reputation was comprehensively dismantled during the trial.
The victims gave evidence of the significant harm they had suffered and the considerable emotional burden involved in recounting their experiences in court.
Read the BBC News article here.