Dundee shopkeeper Rana Irfan Aslam has been given a short one-year sentence for grooming a 12-year-old for sex.
Aslam, 51, of Wallacetown Court, was branded a “dirty, paedophile scumbag” by his victim, now in her thirties, Dundee’s Evening Telegraph reports.
“He was in his 30s and I was 12. He worked at a shop in Kirkton. I would go in with my pocket money to buy sweets with my friend. He said we were ‘really pretty’,” she said.
“He enticed us into his car and bought us a McDonald’s — from there the abuse started. It began with him kissing and groping me. He would buy me CDs, perfume and even a mobile phone, which I had to hide from my parents.”
The woman said she hoped Aslam would “go to prison for a long time” — but Sheriff John Rafferty handed him a sentence only one year long.
“This is a case where you have satisfied your own lustful desires without having any regard whatsoever to the impact that would have on your young female victim,” ruled the sheriff – the Scottish equivalent of a circuit court judge, roughly speaking.
“Only a custodial sentence is appropriate or there would be wholly justified outrage if persons were allowed to behave in this manner and not be punished by means of a custodial sentence.”
Aslam could be freed from prison in six months or less, with automatic parole halfway through a prison term being standard for determinate sentences.
https://twitter.com/JackBMontgomery/status/929076053397696513
Sentencing Aslam, Sheriff Rafferty said there were “factors to take into account which have been amply highlighted by your solicitor Mr [Jim] Laverty” – such as “the impact the sentence will have on your own children and your own spouse”.
Rafferty also suggested that a guilty plea would have “significantly mitigated the sentence”.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.