Father-of-six Nissar Hussain from Bradford was left needing surgery after the group broke his kneecap and hand on Wednesday.

A pickaxe handle was used by one of the assailants.

Mr Hussain, 49, is recovering in hospital after the attacks.

This is the latest in a long line of incidents following his family's conversion to Christianity over a decade ago.

Mr Hussain has said that he and his family are virtual prisoners in their home as a consequence.

He said he had "three cars written off" and "regular drive-by bricks thrown through the window. Kids couldn't play in the back garden for five years".

Police, he said, told him: "Stop trying to be crusader and move out of your area."

He told the Bradford Argus: "We are under the cosh and classed as blasphemers."

"The Muslim community are largely decent people but because of the taboo of converting to Christianity we are classed by them as scum and second-class citizens."

He said most of the Muslim community has turned a blind eye to his family's suffering.

Before the attacks, Mr Hussain said that despite his persecution he had received little help from police or churches.

Bradford police are treating the latest attack as a religious hate crime.

Mr Hussain, his wife Kubra and their six children converted to Anglicanism over a decade ago and have suffered a campaign of intimidation ever since.

The harassment and intimidation intensified after 2008 when they appeared in a television documentary about the mistreatment of Muslim converts.

Mr Hussain, who had to give up his job as a nurse because of the stress of the campaign, has said the family will have to move to a white English area to escape the intimidation.

Wilson Chowdhry from the British Pakistani Christian Association told the Catholic Herald that "apostasy crime" - committed against Muslims who convert to Christianity - needed to be more widely recognised in Britain.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Telegraph and Argus
• Image: Catholic Herald

William Finnegan, 59, said he kept the civil marriage a secret from the church and his parishioners.

Finnegan, known to his parishioners as Father Bill, was parish priest at St Clare's Church in Bradford when the girl accused him of forcefully kissing her.

His barrister told the jury: "You may be thinking that he is only human, that Father Bill, as a Catholic priest, has taken a vow of celibacy, condemning himself to a single and lonely life filled with perhaps an underlying sexual frustration….

"Well, we are going to hear evidence from Father Bill and we are going to be hearing evidence from his wife, Beverley Dawson.

"No, you didn't mishear me. His wife. He and Beverley Dawson secretly married abroad in September 1999. So deeply in love was he that he was prepared to ignore the Catholic Church's ban on marriage, a secret which has been kept from almost everyone until now."

"Whatever the outcome of this case, his ministry as a Catholic priest is well and truly over."

Judge Roger Thomas, QC, asked Finnegan: "Your public announcement of this today is news to everyone?" Finnegan said: "It is, and I will be dealt with."

The judge asked: "Did you think it would compromise your position as a priest, to carry out communion and so on and so forth, or wasn't that an issue?" Finnegan said: "It wasn't an issue."

In evidence, Dawson said her husband would visit her each week after his church service on Sunday, then go back to work on Tuesday.

The apostolic administrator of Leeds diocese, Monsignor John Wilson, said: "I first want to express my deep sense of shame at the actions of William Finnegan. I also want to express my sorrow and regret to his victim."

Sources:

The Guardian

Irish Central

Image: The Telegraph