A LEADING member of the Perth Muslim community and former restaurant owner has been left with his reputation in tatters after being convicted of sexually assaulting two teenage girls.

A jury deliberated for nearly six hours at Perth Sheriff Court before finding Farooq Hussain (56), of Pitcullen Crescent, guilty by majority on all three charges he faced.

The “devout Muslim” businessman, well-known as a charity fund-raiser, attacked a 14-year-old girl on two different occasions while alone with her in Perth flats last year, and a 15-year-old in 2002.

The 14-year-old’s family broke down in tears when the verdict was announced.

Her mother said afterwards, “We just feel relief. Maybe she can now stop having nightmares and being on edge all the time.

“She has not been able to sleep or leave my side.

“This has been horrific for her. He (Hussain) showed no emotion at all in the dock.

“I’m relieved for both the girls, because the other girl has had this hanging over her for years. Hopefully they can both move on with help.”

Sentence was deferred for background reports to August 27 and Hussain was bailed and placed on the sex offenders’ register.

He had denied sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl on July 1 or 2 last year at a house in Perth and on August 4 in a different property in Perth.

He also denied sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in a Perth restaurant on November 26, 2002.

On the first day of the week-long trial the court heard tearful and graphic accounts of the sexual assaults from the two girls.

One of them gave her evidence via a video link and the other from behind a screen so they could not see Hussain.

The first girl, who is still at school, told the court she was in a flat in Perth on July 1 or 2 last year when Hussain sexually assaulted her.

Just over a month later she was in a different Perth flat with Hussain and another man, who left.

The court was told Hussain offered to give her a massage and she allowed him to massage her hands and feet.

When he asked if she would like a massage anywhere else, she initially said no. He offered to massage her neck and the assault took place.

At one stage she tried to get up but was unable to do so because, “he put pressure on me.” The girl said she just “sat there” because she was too scared.

She eventually got up and at that point Hussain was said to have shouted, “What’s wrong?”

The girl didn’t have enough credit on her mobile phone to call her mother, so texted her instead asking her to phone her back.

The girl said to Hussain, “You know what you’ve done. You’re not supposed to do that. I’m going to phone the police.”

Hussain was then said to have shouted, “Do you know what this will do to me? It will ruin my life.”

Hussain told the court his saliva was found on the breasts of the girl because he was so “disgusted and degraded” at her lifting up her top that he spat on them.

He said such a reaction is “natural back home.”

In his evidence he said, “She stood up and lifted her top. I started sweating. I was very nervous. I tried to push her and I spat on her.”

He continued, “It would never enter my mind to make these sort of advances to any women. I have been happily married for 32 years and have three lovely children. I just feel gutted and let down. I just feel sick.

“I come from a background where the culture is different. You do not flash yourself to somebody.

“In our culture the breasts are there to feed the children. I spat because I felt dirty and disgusted.”

A 20-year-old woman, who was 15 when she was sexually assaulted by Hussain in 2002 in a locked room above a Perth restaurant, said he pushed her against a filing cabinet during the assault.

It only stopped, she said, when someone else came up to the room.

The defence had several character witnesses for Hussain, including former police officer David Ford, who said his friend of more than 20 years was a “devout Muslim” who “prayed five times a day.”