Woman Jailed For S3xually Abusing 9-Year-Old Girl

A woman has been jailed for 7- years for carrying out a string of s3x offences against a young girl following the failure of an arranged marriage.

Raheelah Dar is beginning a lengthy prison sentence today after being convicted of the “isolating” and “manipulating” abuse of the girl several years ago.

The 43-year-old denied all of the charges but was found guilty of three counts of indecent assault and two counts of indecency with a child by unanimous verdicts in a trial in June of this year.

Prosecutor Christine Egerton told Teesside Crown Court that the string of assaults were carried out in an “abuse of trust”.

The court heard that Dar, then aged 26, began to groom and abuse the young girl following the failure of her first arranged marriage when she found herself living back with her parents in Middlesbrough.

The victim, who is now in her early 20s, read her victim impact statement to the court from the witness stand.

She said: “As a result of the abuse I suffered as a child, I have been left feeling isolated and unable to engage with people.

“I find it very difficult to trust anybody. Physical contact such as a simple hug can bring on severe panic attacks.”

She went on to tell the court that she struggles to maintain friendships as people cannot understand her mental health episodes and she even had to drop out of university as her grades had dropped significantly due to her stress.

She added: “I love my family immensely but I was unable to relate to them because they didn’t know what I had suffered.

“I felt isolated from the community I was brought up in as the topic of child abuse is taboo and is kept behind closed doors. I was left feeling segregated.”

Alison Pryor, defending, told the court that Dar had suffered with mental health issues throughout her life which had worsened due to two failed marriages and the death of her daughter in 2008.

Ms Pryor told the court that as a practising Muslim woman who has been convicted of these offences against someone of the same sex, she has been shunned by her community and urged Mr Recorder Tim Roberts QC to consider a punishment that did not involve a prison sentence.

She said: “The shame that this has brought and will bring upon Miss Dar and her family cannot be underestimated.