November 13, 1992  The deputy head teacher of a Hackney primary school was jailed for nine months for ‘surreptitious and opportunistic’ sex assaults on nine pupils.  For some some seven years the Moslem schoolgirls – many of them Turkish – put up with sexual harassment before they finally complained to a language instructor. Bearded and bespectacled Bhagabhai Mistry, 52, bowed his head in shame after jurors at Snaresbrook Crown Court convicted him of 11 specimen charges of indecently assaulting pupils between the ages of eight and 11. They acquitted him of one count of indecently assaulting a 10-year-old during 1990. Married man Mistry, of Limesdale Gardens, Edgware, had denied all the offences – which took place between 1984 and July 31 last year. One victim, now a 16, gave evidence about indecent assaults she had suffered at the hands of Mistry eight years ago. Passing sentence, Judge Geoffrey Grigson asked: ‘What is the purpose of a prison sentence? There are two. First, any teacher who abuses his position as you did is deterred from doing it again. Second, it is to punish you. ‘Those children were entrusted to you and you abused that trust. You deliberately chose children who were especially vulnerable and those who had just arrived in this country. ‘You caused children real unhappiness and confusion in their minds.’ As he was led from the dock Mrs Mistry had to be ushered out of court as she screamed her husband’s innocence and pointed at the judge and counsel. After claims were first made about Mistry’s conduct in July last year the Child Protection Team based at Stoke Newington police station became involved and initially interviewed more that 30 pupils. Judge Grigson thanked police officers, headed by Pol Sgt ‘Mo’ Mattu, and teaching staff involved in the prosecution. Mrs Patricia May, prosecuting, had said that between September 1984 and June last year Mistry ‘persisted in a course of conduct that is commonly called sexual harassment.’ Counsel described how victims were regularly indecently assaulted in a ‘surreptitious and opportunistic manner.’ Mrs May continued: ‘The majority of these girls come from ethnic minorities and in particular from the Turkish community.’ Counsel said that it may have been that Mistry thought the girls were ‘less willing and less able’ to complain about his behaviour because of their ‘background and language difficulties.’ During the trial the 16-year-old said that when she was as  young as eight, Mistry would run his hand up and down the back of her thighs when she went to his desk to have her work marked. Another youngster – who claimed she saw one of her fellow witnesses being touched up by Mistry – said she was indecently assaulted by him in the school corridor. Other pupils complained of Mistry stroking their thighs while another told the jury that he touched her breasts when she was walking to the lavatory. The court heard that Mistry would sit next to some of his pupils during lunch-hour and run his hand along their thighs. One girl said that Mistry touched her in the area of her breasts while he marked her work. The jury were told that he kept the same girl – described as ‘well developed’ for her age – behind after class, placed his hands around her buttocks and said: ‘You’re a big girl aren’t you?’ After receiving a series of complaints from some of the youngsters in June last year, a Turkish language instructor contacted police. Giving evidence in the trial Mistry maintained, as he did in police interviews, that he never touched the girls improperly. He said that he had been teaching at the school for a ‘number of years’ and no such allegation had ever been made before. Mr Richard Atchley, defending, had said of Mistry, a teacher of 30 years who speaks five different languages: ‘He is in a word finished. Since the conclusion of the case he has been dismissed. He has all the inherent shame that convictions of this sort bring.’ Mr Atchley told the judge that during the trial he would have seen the support given to him by his wife and two sons and the ‘shame they have suffered.’ Counsel added: ‘He is finished in both himself and the community. This is a man who was crushed by the allegations and completely crushed and devastated by the verdicts.’