Mosque molestor Abdur Rashid has refused to apologise to the six-year-old girl that he sexually assaulted.

As the sex beast walked free from prison - just four days after he was given a lengthy jail stretch - he insisted he had done nothing wrong.

Speaking to the Sunday World as he left Midlands Prison, he refused to apologise to the girl he had been teaching at a mosque in the greater Dublin area.

"I've done nothing wrong," said Rashid, as he carried a plastic see-through bag filled with his belongings. "I didn't do it."

Deportation

Reminded that he was leaving prison after serving a sentence for the very crime he was now denying, Rashid (50) shook his head.

Asked whether he would like to acknowledge his crime, he said: "I cannot remember."

Asked whether he feared deportation on foot of his conviction, he said: "No. In 2001, the government of Ireland gave me consent to stay and an Irish passport… I am an Irish citizen."

Asked if there was anything he would like to say to the girl or her family, he said: "Sorry? No. I am not sexual assault. I didn't do it. Thank you, sir."

Rashid was convicted in January at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of sexual assault at the mosque in December 2015.

The former Leitrim resident, later of Blessington Court, Dublin, who denied the charge, was remanded in custody.

Last Monday, Judge Pauline Codd sentenced Rashid to 18 months' imprisonment, but suspended the final four months for a year provided he follows the direction of the Probation Services, keeps the peace and is of good behaviour.

She backdated the sentence to January 30 when Rashid first went into custody.

This meant that he was able to walk out of prison just four days after being sentenced after qualifying for "remission" (prisoners in Irish jails are entitled to an automatic 25pc cut in their prison sentence).

The court was told that when the girl was picked up from the mosque by her mother, the girl said Rashid - originally from Bangladesh - had touched her genital area.

When the mother confronted Rashid, he said he had been teaching the girl wudu, an Islamic ritual procedure for washing parts of the body.

The married father told gardai that he had held the girl in his lap and kissed her like he would kiss his own daughter.

Molesting

He denied kissing her with his tongue and denied sexually molesting her.

He claimed because her reading performance was good, he lifted her up to kiss her, but she slipped in his hands and he ended up holding her by the thighs.

The court was told the girl had nightmares about Rashid taking her away and was afraid to go to school after the assault.

Judge Codd said Rashid had displayed an "unhealthy interest" in her and was guilty of "gross exploitation of the innocence of a very young child".

She commended the girl and her mother for their courage in giving evidence.