JAGISTS

One Adam Farouk, a cleric, has bagged eight times life in prison for molesting and sexually violating eight pupils.

The cleric was convicted and sentenced by an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Tuesday for defiling the pupils aged between six and 11 in his class.

Justice Abiola Soladoye held that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt the ingredients of the eight-count charge bordering on sexual assault by penetration brought against the cleric, NAN reports.

Soladoye described the cleric as morally deficient and an embarrassment to the Islamic faith, noting that the court did not fall for his lies.

She said that evidence of the pupils were corroborated as they identified the cleric as their teacher who penetrated their vaginas with his index finger.

Soladoye also held that evidence of the 10th prosecution witness, a midwife with the Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), Mrs Oluchi Nwoke-Okoi, revealed that the pupils had vaginal injuries.

The judge also held that the defendant asked the pupils to turn their backs while he defiled them one by one.

She said: “The demeanour of the defendant is nothing to write home about. His stony face appears mischievous; he is extremely unkind and ruthless, fingering his students with his index finger.

“What an Islamic teacher who took undue advantage of poor students in Islam and messed around with their purity and dignity!

“He is meant to teach his students morals, discipline and values, but alas, the reverse was the case.

The dignity and safety of our students must be cherished. Dirty Islamic teachers of his kind must be locked away and be made to pay for their dirty sexual indiscretions.

”The defendant is hereby convicted of all the charges and sentenced to life imprisonment on each of the eight counts, but the sentences shall run concurrently.”

The judge also ordered that the convict should have his name written in the Sexual Offenders Register of Lagos State.