A convicted paedophile who was a trusted Koran teacher has died in prison and his funeral will be held at the same mosque where he abused his young victims.

Mohammed Sadiq was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2017 after being convicted of six counts of indecent assault and eight counts of sexual assault on a child under 13.

The charges involved four victims and related to the period between 1996 and 2006 when Sadiq taught the Koran to young children at the Madina Mosque, which was at the time in Woodville Road, Cardiff . He was found not guilty of one count of indecent assault following a trial at Cardiff Crown Court in June 2017.

His sentence was later reduced to nine years on appeal in December of the same year. An appeal against his conviction was rejected.

A spokesman for G4S confirmed 83-year-old Sadiq, from Lake Road East in Cyncoed , died in Parc Prison, Bridgend , on January 8.

(Image: Wales News Service)

His funeral will be held at the Madina Mosque, which is now located in Lucas Street in Cathays , on Friday.

A concerned worshipper at the mosque, who asked to remain anonymous, expressed frustration at the fact the funeral would be held at the same mosque – which is now in a different building following a fire at the Woodville Road site – in which Sadiq committed his "heinous" crimes.

They said: "I think the management should have thought before they allowed the funeral of a convicted paedophile to take place where he committed his heinous crimes.

"I wonder how the victims, who are members of this community, will feel. I think the public at large should be aware of what's happening."

A committee member of the Madina Mosque, where Sadiq taught for more than 30 years, confirmed it would be holding the funeral prayer, adding it was both the wish of Sadiq and his family that it be held there. They added that they had not received any complaints or been contacted about the decision.

"We feel sympathy for the victims and their families. We supported the conviction and we encouraged members to come forward.

"But now the person has died we don't look at what wrong happened in the past, what we are looking at is a family who is in distress," said the committee member, who wished to withhold their name.

Mosque committee chairman Javed Iqbal said: "We wholeheartedly sympathise with the victims. The mosque is a place of worship for any Muslims. We sympathise with the victims and the bereaved family."

(Image: Wales News Service)

Sadiq was a prominent member of the mosque, which was then in Woodville Road in Cathays before it was destroyed by fire in 2006.

As well as teaching Koran studies to primary school-age children, which took place at the mosque after school, Sadiq was at one time the mosque's treasurer.

Sadiq denied that he carried out the assaults and claimed the allegations had been made up by the four complainants due to an internal row in the mosque between two factions.

During the trial the court heard how Sadiq would touch his victims on their breasts and private parts and lay one girl face down on his lap and slapped her on the bottom and the top part of her legs.

Sentencing in 2017, Judge Stephen Hopkins QC told Sadiq: "You have not and you are still not showing any remorse at all for what you did.

"You appear to have no understanding of the harm and humiliation you inflicted on four young children, as they were."

In an interview at the time, one of his victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "It's quite sad really. I don't really like to look back at my childhood because for most of it I was quite down and had sort of negative feelings most of the time."

She described how she would be called to read the Koran and Sadiq would touch her "inappropriately".

This is what she said about how the assaults affected her:

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"He would call out my name and call me to sit next to him behind his desk in his classroom. It would be to learn to read the Koran and I would be sitting there learning, reading and reading what I'd learnt.

"I don't think he paid any attention to what I was reading. A few minutes he would reach down under my clothes and just touch me inappropriately. And that would last for as long as he felt I suppose.

"I think it was just sort of shock when it first happened. 'Oh no, what's happening?' And then after that it just became: 'Okay this is what he's doing, and I don't really have control over it'.

"So I just let it happen and let him do what he wants and when it's finished it's finished and I can get away."

She described feeling embarrassed about the sexual assaults and how she "struggles" to cope with what happened but stressed the importance of speaking out, offering advice to other women who may have experienced similar abuse.