50-year-old who sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl avoids jail

Wednesday, 23 October 2019 10:10

A 50-year-old man who sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl has avoided jail.

Waheed Ali appeared before Bradford Crown Court charged with touching an underage girl inappropriately in Bradford district last year.

Ali was accused of groping the young girl on the breast while she was walking her dog.

Attending court in order to give evidence and to be cross examined, the young girl explained how the incident had left her feeling upset and anxious.

The court heard, from Ali’s barrister, Katherine Robinson, that he had never been in trouble before and his offending was a matter of great shame to him.

Miss Robinson told the court that Ali worked hard to support his wife who was not in the best of health.

If he was sent to prison it could only be for a few weeks and no work would be done to address his offending behaviour, although suspending the sentence would allow the probation service to undertake programmes with Ali, and that outcome would be in the public interest.

Ali was sentenced to 28 weeks in prison, suspended for two years, and must attend 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days with the probation service and do 200 hours of unpaid work.

Ali was made the subject of a seven-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and he must sign on the sex offender register for seven years.

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