Market trader Abdul Kazi sexually assaulted three teenage girls on buses and was identified by police following a Lancashire Police CCTV appeal.
The 66-year-old, from Accrington, committed the sex attacks on separate occasions and is now ‘shamed in the community and the mosque’.
Abdul Kazi denied five counts of sexual assault but was unanimously found guilty by a jury on all counts after a four-day trial.
Abdul Kazi sat behind one of the victims and she ‘felt something touching her left side’ and he then ‘carried on touching her between her arm and breast’.
She reported the incident to the bus driver and police and it was captured on CCTV.
Stills were taken from the footage and issued through a police media appeal and Abdul Kazi was identified and arrested.
Two more victims contacted police after seeing the CCTV appeal and said they had been sexually assaulted by Abdul Kazi in earlier incidents.
In victim impact statements, all three girls said they felt ‘anxious’ and scared to go on buses again.
Abdul Kazi was sentenced to a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months with a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement, a six-month curfew.
He was also made subject to a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders register.
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