Queen’s director would trust abuse coach ‘with daughters’

A QUEEN’S tennis club director yesterday defended a paedophile coach who was jailed for sexually abusing children, telling a court he would “entrust him with his daughters”.

Peter Begg, a lawyer, was one of a number of supporters who came forward as character witnesses for Ajaz Karim – nicknamed “Jaz” – and voiced dismay at his conviction at Hove Crown Court on Thursday.

Karim, 63, sexually abused six of his students while working at Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, West Sussex, between 1985 and 1993, before going on to teach at Eton College.

He “betrayed everything a teacher should stand for”, the sentencing judge said as he jailed him for 10 years.

One victim told how Karim massaged her “virtually naked body” after making her lie face down on the floor of his locked study, before sexually assaulting her. His victims were aged between 14 and 18.

As he was sentenced Mr Begg, a club director, said Karim was a “magnetic attraction” at The Queen’s Club, which hosts a warm-up tennis tournament before Wimbledon every year, adding: “I trust him completely. I have two daughters. I would entrust my children to Jaz even today. I have never picked up the slightest impropriety from him.”

Karim, of Hammersmith, west London, was found guilty of nine charges of indecent assault and one of attempting to do so. Judge Christine Henson said: “I’m in no doubt that you used your popularity as a teacher to groom your victims. They should have been safe and secure, sadly they were not.”