Stoke-on-Trent Imam 'assaulted boy, 12, in classroom'

A teenager who accused an Imam of sexually assaulting him has insisted he was telling the truth.

Mohammed Hanif Khan, 42, from Sheffield, is accused of sexually assaulting the boy at the mosque he ran in Capper Street, Stoke-on-Trent.

He is also charged with the attempted rape of another boy and has denied all of the charges.

The boy told Nottingham Crown Court he was attacked in a classroom at the mosque in 2009.

He told the court he had been attending an hour-long evening class at the mosque, as he usually did on weekdays, and that he was attacked by Mr Khan in a private room on 16 October, 2009.

'Smelt cannabis'

Robert Woodcock QC, defending, told the boy: "You keep saying, 'I think, I think, I think'.

"What happened to you must have been exceedingly unpleasant, wasn't it? Every detail of it surely would be easy to remember, wouldn't it? So where did it happen the last time it happened."

"I think it was in the classroom," the boy said.

"Did it happen at all?" Mr Woodcock asked.

"It did happen," the boy said.

Mr Woodcock suggested to the court that the boy was upset with the Imam who had told him he thought he could smell cannabis on him.

The boy denied the claim and said the reason he could not remember the night in greater detail was because it was a long time ago.

Mr Khan denies three counts of rape, four counts of attempted rape and one count of sexual activity with a child. The offences are alleged to have taken place between 1 July and 16 October 2009.

The trial continues.