Ex-councillor jailed for abusing boy when he was just a teenager

A FORMER community councillor who played a key role in a government-backed regeneration scheme in Bradford has been jailed for 17 years after a jury found him guilty of sexual abusing a young boy almost 40 years ago.

A judge was told yesterday that Zamurrad Khan’s victim felt “cheated out of his teenage years” because of the repeated abuse he suffered at his hands in the 1970s and 1980s.

Khan, 57, of St Luke’s Close, Little Horton, Bradford, served as a community councillor on the Bradford Trident scheme, which had been involved in regenerating areas of the city.

Solicitor advocate Rachim Singh, for Khan, said his client was “shell-shocked” after the jury convicted him on two charges of serious sexual assault and one of indecency with a child. Khan, inset, was cleared on a third allegation of serious sexual assault. Mr Singh said his client had served the city very well as part of the regeneration group, but in sentencing the defendant, Recorder Sophie Drake said Khan had been hiding the secret of the very serious offending he had committed as a young man. Recorder Drake highlighted the fact that the two charges of serious sexual assault were specimen offences and represented about 20 incidents of abuse. She said the abuse began when the complainant was about 10 or 11 and Khan put himself forward as some form of “religious teacher” who asked the victim’s parents if he could take their son to the mosque.

She said the abuse took place in secluded areas and Khan had “groomed” the youngster before moving on to the more serious offending. “It is clear your abuse of him has had a significant adverse impact on his life,” she told Khan.

“He feels cheated out of his teenage years.”

In his victim impact statement the complainant described how the abuse affected his schooling and caused him physical problems.

He said his drinking became more severe after seeing Khan in 2008 and he became “a hermit”.

Khan was sentenced to 17 years in jail for the abuse and the judge imposed an additional licence period of one year. He will also have to register as a sex offender with the police for the rest of his life.