Abused wife slams judge who said she wasn’t vulnerable

A PAKISTANI cricketer’s wife has criticised a judge who spared her abusive husband jail for beating her and said he was not convinced she was vulnerable.

Fakhara Karim, 33, also called for her husband Mustafa Bashir, 34, to receive a tougher sentence after he allegedly lied by claiming he had been offered a contract with a top county club.

She accused Judge Richard Mansell QC of having no idea what she had been through during her marriage, in which she was forced to drink bleach, throttled in public, and hit with a cricket bat in 2014.

MPs and campaigners also voiced concerns over the ‘soft sentence’, claiming it wrongly implied that domestic violence is less of an issue for middle-class women.

Tory MP Maria Miller, chairman of the Commons women and equalities committee, has written to Attorney- General Jeremy Wright about the case.

She said: ‘The sentence does not necessarily reflect the severity of the crime that has Spared jail: Mustafa Bashir been committed.’ Manchester Crown Court heard last week how Miss Karim often feared for her life when her husband reacted violently to her Western clothing and what she spent her money on.

But Mr Mansell said he was ‘not convinced she was a vulnerable person’ because she was ‘ plainly an intelligent woman with a network of friends’ and was a graduate.

Instead, he handed down an 18-month suspended sentence after Bashir, who plays cricket in a local league, said he had been offered a contract with Leicestershire on the condition he did not go to prison.

But Leicestershire County Cricket Club said it was ‘bemused’ by the claims, adding: ‘The club have never spo- ken to Mustafa Bashir or an agent, nor offered a contract to the player.’

Speaking from her home in Oldham, Miss Karim said of the judge: ‘He says that I am intelligent and not vulnerable because of my degree and my friends and my background.

‘How can he say that as he doesn’t know what I have been through and what happened? I had to become brave because of the situation I was in, because of what happened.

‘I wasn’t always brave and going through all of that has made me brave.

‘ It has been three years now and I want to move on with my life.

‘I also do not understand why he lied in court. I do hope that his sentence will be changed.’ Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: ‘The judge’s finding is outrageous because it implies that somehow domestic violence is less of an issue for middle- class, middle income women.’

Polly Neate, head of domestic abuse charity Womens Aid, said: ‘A softer sentence on the basis that “she is not a vulnerable woman” is shocking.’

While the offence is not one where the sentence can be referred to the Court of Appeal as ‘unduly lenient’, the judge has 56 days to recall the case if doubt is cast on the sentence.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it was aware of ‘recent developments’ in the case and was ‘currently considering’ its options.