London: A 43-year-old Muslim woman from the United Kingdom (UK) has been jailed for seven years after being convicted of sexually abusing a minor girl.

Raheelah Dar has been found guilty by the Teesside Crown Court of three counts of indecent assault and two counts of indecency with a child, says a report in The Sun.

The abuse began to take place 17 years ago, when Dar, then aged 26, began to groom and abuse the young girl, who was 9 then, following the failure of her first arranged marriage.

The sentence was announced after the survivor told the court that she had felt ‘isolated’ and ‘unable to engage with people’ ever since she was abused.

She went on to tell the court that she struggles to maintain friendships as people cannot understand her psychological issues and had to drop out of university as her grades had dropped significantly due to her stress, the report said.

The survivor said that even something as simple as a compassionate hug now causes her to have panic attacks. She has also developed a fear of visiting doctors and has indulged in self-harm as a result of the sexual abuse she suffered as a child.

The convict’s defence lawyer Alison Pryor told the court that Dar had suffered from mental health issues throughout her life which had worsened due to two failed marriages and the death of her daughter in 2008. She added that Dar has been shunned by her Muslim community for religious reasons following the conviction, and hence should not serve a prison sentence.

She said, “The shame that this has brought and will bring upon Miss Dar and her family cannot be underestimated. This is different from what you would find in another case of this type. That is punishment over and above what this court can impose.”

But the judge rejected the pleas for a non-custodial sentence, calling the convict ‘crafty’ and rebuking her for using her failed arranged marriage and ‘internal conflicts’ about sexual orientation to have a sexual relationship with a 9-year-old girl.