A tutor found guilty by a jury of sexually abusing a girl as she read the Koran has been warned he is facing a jail sentence.

Yusuf Mangera (52) was convicted of six counts of indecent assault, with majority 10-2 verdicts, at Leicester Crown Court yesterday.

He was accused of indecently touching the girl, over and under her clothing, between the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the victim was aged about 12.

Mangera, of St Barnabas Road, North Evington, Leicester, who runs a successful bakery business in Highfields, had denied the charges.

He told the jury: "Even in the Koran, it says things like this should not happen."

Steven Coupland, prosecuting, said the specimen charges represented more occasions of abuse on the girl by Mangera, who was via a mosque as a hafiz – tutor – by the girl's father to teach his children to read the Koran.

The victim, now a married adult, told the court her younger brother was usually dismissed from the room early during lessons.

Mangera, then in his 20s, would sexually fondle her as she read the Koran to him, while they were alone and unsupervised.

She kept putting on more items of clothing for lessons in an effort to deter his advances, she said.

Mr Coupland told the jury: "No doubt he thought that because of his position and because of her age, either she wouldn't tell what he was doing to her or that she wouldn't be believed."

Mangera said apart from two occasions when her brother was ill, he had not taught her alone.

He said there was no physical touching, accidental or otherwise, at any stage.

Mangera said he knew of no reason why the victim would make such a complaint about him after more than 25 years.

He said: "I never touched her. I don't know why she says so."

Judge David Price adjourned the case until December 3 for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

He told the defendant: "Don't read anything into the fact I'm granting you bail, in respect of the sentence.

"I have in mind a custodial sentence."

Mangera was released on bail with a condition to surrender any travel documents, including his passport, at a police station by 6pm yesterday.