A TEACHER has been sentenced to 270 hours of community service for ‘gratuitous degradation’ of pupils at the Blackburn mosque he worked in.

Kurram Hussain, 25, of Randal Street, Blackburn, was convicted after a trial at Blackburn Magistrates Court of two offences of assault on boys aged eight and nine-years-old. He must pay them £150 compensation each.

The boys attended the mosque, which cannot be named to protect the identity of the victims and is not Randall Street Mosque, every weekday evening where Hussain taught them to memorise text from the Qur'an.

The boys testified that if they struggled to recite the text perfectly, they would be subjected to name callings, beatings, and made to sit in “stress positions”.

Don Green, prosecuting, told the court one victim said: “He hits people when they do not learn. He uses his fists and slaps them on their body, anywhere.

“I have been hit for three years.”

The court also heard that Hussain called the victims names such as “specky four eyes” and “Yogi Bear”, as well punching children in their stomachs, all while room curtains were drawn.

The court heard that Hussain often used the ‘chair’ stress position for up to 10 minutes, which saw pupils stand with bended legs against a wall as if sitting on a chair. He also forced pupils to adopt the ‘chicken’ stress position, which involves the child bending over and grabbing their ears through their legs.

Addressing the bench of magistrates, the clerk to the court said that magistrates who convicted Hussain stated he had shown “gratuituous degradation of the victims. It was abuse of power by a person in a position of trust.”

Hussain had taught at the mosque for six years but had no formal qualifications.

He was supported in court by seven members of the mosque committee, and magistrates were told that after media attention in the case, parents had written letters to the mosque expressing their support for him.

His defence lawyer said he still maintained his innocence, and that no physical punishments had taken place.