The Court of Appeal has replaced a sentence imposed on Abdur Rashid for sexually assaulting a six-year-old child, finding that the original two-year headline sentence was too low. It imposed a post-mitigation sentence of four and a half years’ imprisonment and ordered two years of post-release supervision.
The court delivered its judgment on 8 May 2019 on an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions to review the sentence as unduly lenient. Rashid had been found guilty of one count of sexual assault. The court said the offence happened in a mosque where he was teaching religion to children. He kissed the child with sexual intent and touched her under her clothing in the vaginal area.
The Circuit Criminal Court had imposed 18 months’ imprisonment, with the final four months suspended for one year. The appeal court said the threshold for intervening in an undue-leniency review was high, but had been met. It assessed the offence as falling in the lower half of the middle range for offences of this type and set the appropriate headline sentence at five and a half years.
The Court of Appeal described the aggravating circumstances as serious: Rashid was the child’s religion teacher and held a position of authority over a six-year-old. It also recounted evidence of the child’s distress and lasting effects, including nightmares, bedwetting, anxiety and counselling over two years.
The court considered the mitigating circumstances modest. It identified Rashid’s previous good character, reasonable work record and the prospect that prison might be more difficult for him because he was not born in Ireland. The judgment said the mental health material did not establish a relevant condition requiring treatment and gave little weight to one psychological report.
The court quashed the Circuit Court order and substituted a post-mitigation term of four and a half years. It did not suspend any part of that term. Instead, it ordered two years of post-release supervision, during which Rashid must abide by the directions of the probation and welfare services.