Adam Saleem, pictured out Manchester Crown Court, has been told by the judge a prison sentence is ‘inevitable’
A hotel boss who molested two little girls while they were staying at his guesthouse by luring them into his bedroom to look at his cats is facing jail.
Former army intelligence officer Adam Saleem, 46, assaulted the youngsters aged just four and eight at his luxury property in the village of Hale Barns, near Altrincham, in Greater Manchester.
The victims who had been staying with their parents at the hotel near Manchester Airport ahead of a trip to Florida for a 50th birthday celebration.
He coaxed them into his bedroom on the pretext of showing them rescue cats he kept and the children were touched inappropriately after he shut his bedroom door and knelt down in front of them.
The attack only ended when their unsuspecting father knocked on the door, walked into the bedroom room and said it was the girls’ bed-time.
At the time the youngsters were too scared to say what happened and the family went on holiday unaware of their ordeals.
The truth only emerged six months later when the older girl told her mother after their father watched a TV programme about a missing child and told his daughters they could talk to him if ever had encounters with ‘nasty men.’
During a video interview with police the eight year old showed officers where Saleem had touched her and even re-enacted how he carried out the assault.
Her parents said she would not have known about paedophilia as they exercised parental lock controls on all their internet access.
Adam Saleem said he worked for the intelligence in the military and also claimed to have worked for the SAS
At Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, Saleem, from Hale Barns, near Altrincham, Greater Manchester was found guilty of two charges of sexual assault.
He will be sentenced next month and has been granted bail but was warned by a judge that prison was ‘inevitable.’
He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offender Register and he was banned from allowing children into his guesthouse.
The father of three had previously been a revered figure in his local mosque and was a ‘Hafiza of Quran’ due to him memorising the Islamic book.
The court heard he had initially been an airline IT security officer for Thomas Cook then worked in intelligence for the military- claiming to have worked the SAS – until he he was injured in a skiing accident.
He said he had also worked for Manchester United as Head of IT and also for the United Nations in the Middle East. before working as an air traffic system controller at Heathrow Airport.
Adam Saleem’s £2 million guesthouse where he assaulted two young girls in March last year
The assaults took place in March last year after the victims’s father had booked them into Saleem’s £2m property where he had eight rooms for paying guests.
Miss Nicola Gatto prosecuting said: ‘The complainants father had turned 50 and rather than having a party, he decided to take his family on a holiday to Florida to celebrate his birthday.
‘He booked an overnight stay at the B&B so the family could go for their flight in the morning. The family were allocated a ground floor room but they didn’t want it as they wanted an ensuite in the bedroom.
‘This defendant allocated then a room next door to his room and the family were put in one shared room. On arrival at 8pm the children went to play whilst the parents got the room ready and started unpacking bags.
‘The girls went down to play with the cats just outside the door of the room they were staying in, in the hallway area.
Adam Saleem has been ordered to sign the sex offenders register and will be sentenced next month, but has been warned a by a judge a jail sentence is ‘inevitable’
‘All three girls were playing together. They were outside the private living accommodation of the defendant and their father said they had been quite loud, when all of a sudden they became very quiet.
‘Their father didn’t want them to disturb their neighbours during the course of their playing, so when he went out to look for them, he figured they would be in the defendant’s room, so he knocked on the door of the defendant.
‘He walked into his bedroom, that the prosecution say was unlocked, and he said the defendant was lying on the bed.
‘He got the girls outside of the room, the family went to bed at 9.30 in the evening.
‘The following morning, they left and got taken by taxi and went to the airport and went on their holiday.
‘During the holiday and afterward the parents noticed a change in their daughter and described her as being very emotional and clingy and didn’t speak about their holiday upon their return. They were quite concerned about her.
‘In November 2017, the father watched a film which had an impact on him about a child that had gone missing. He spoke to his daughters, alongside his wife and said if they were ever worried about anything, they could talk to him.
‘He said there were nasty people in the world and they needed to tell him if they ever met any nasty people.
‘On 24 November after the girls’ mother had put the children to bed, the eldest daughter told her sister that she had to tell someone, and then said that the defendant was not a nice man.
‘It took her mother a few minutes to understand who Saleem was, and then the girl told her that he touched her. The girl then demonstrated how the defendant touching her.’
Police quizzed the older girl but the four year old was too young to be interviewed. In her statement the older girl said: ‘He’s got three cats so we went into his room, my older sister and my little sister and me, we went into the room and he offered if we wanted to see the cats so we went in and my older sister, she went to stroke the cats on the other side of the room and then he started to touch us.
‘I felt too scared to say anything but then my dad came in. He didn’t know what happened.
‘The man was touching us with his hands under our knickers. It went on for around 50 seconds. He just kept doing it and doing it. I was thinking: ‘Get off me.’
‘I was about to whack his hand away but I felt too scared. I didn’t say anything to him. I was just scared and he did the same thing to my sister.
‘She had no idea what was going on. We were chasing the cats and he offered if we wanted to come into his room as he had a lot of cats. He closed the door when we went in.
‘My dad came in after and said: ‘Bed’s ready, come out girls.’ I didn’t tell anyone. I had been thinking about it every night. I was upset and I just felt weird afterwards. I just felt uncomfortable.’
Saleem denied wrongdoing. He told the jury: ‘The parents were sorting out their room and I left my room open in case they needed something.
‘I dozed off and I became aware of the children had come into my room and were stroking the cats.
‘A few moments later their father came into the room and apologised to me for them disturbing me and he took the children out. I did not touch the children in any way,
‘I have no sexual interest in children – I find it distasteful. I am completely innocent – I am completely shocked.’