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A primary school pupil dreaded going to Koran studies at a mosque in Cardiff because the imam indecently assaulted her every day, a court heard.

Mohammed Sadiq, 81, who taught at the Madina Mosque for more than three decades, denies 15 counts of indecent and sexual assault and is on trial at Cardiff Crown Court.

Giving evidence on day two of the trial, the second alleged victim told the court: “I was embarrassed and scared and felt like it was only happening to me.”

The woman, who is the subject of counts five, six and seven on the indictment, was part way through primary school at the time.

Children running around

In an interview conducted in June last year, she told police she used to go to the mosque on Woodville Road in Cathays every day after school.

She stated: “The teacher would touch me inappropriately.”

The alleged victim said there were between 20 and 30 boys and girls in her class, with the youngest aged five.

She said Sadiq was the only adult in the room and the class was “not very controlled”, with children running around.

(Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE)

The woman told the jury the teacher would call children to sit at his desk and read passages from the Koran in Arabic to him.

But she added: “I don’t think he really paid any attention to our reading.”

She said she would sit at his desk for up to an hour at a time and the defendant would put his hand down her top.

The complainant said: “The first time, I did not expect it to happen, but it just did.

“After that, he would call my name to read and I knew it was going to happen at some point, because it happened every day.”

Unable to tell anyone

She added: “He was quite forceful – he would squeeze the area and it was quite painful.

“I used to carry on with what I was doing and wait for it to be over. I was young and didn’t know how to react.”

The alleged victim said she felt unable to tell anyone what was going on.

She told the jury: “I never really said anything to anyone at the time because I was unsure what was going on at that age, but it just felt wrong.

“I didn’t know how to explain it to anybody. It is difficult to go to your family and say this is happening. I thought if I said something to someone, they might think I was weird.”

Sadiq, from Lake Road East in Cyncoed, denies eight counts of indecent assault and seven of sexual assault.

The allegations involve four complainants and relate to the period between 1996 and 2006. The trial continues.