British teenager is saved from forced marriage

AN 18-year-old British woman who was tricked by her parents into travelling 5,000 miles for a forced marriage was rescued by Bangladeshi police after contacting her boyfriend back home.

After she refused to wed her cousin, who was marrying her to get a British visa, the teenager’s father hit her in the face and told her he would rather cut her throat and chop her up than lose his reputation.

Her boyfriend called British police who alerted the British Embassy.

Fearing her life was in danger, consulate officials hastily arranged a rescue operation, and after they sent her a text to say police were outside the terrified woman fled into the arms of a policeman, pursued by relatives who were guarding her.

Yesterday, her parents were told by a judge at Leeds Crown Court that they faced ‘substantial’ jail terms after being found guilty of forced marriage and using violence or coercion to get her to enter into marriage without consent.

The father was remanded in custody, while the mother was allowed home to make arrangements for her children. None can be named for legal reasons.

The verdicts come in the week another woman was jailed for four and a half years at Birmingham Crown Court after forcing her daughter to marry in Pakistan – the first successful prosecution of its kind.

The jury in yesterday’s case heard how the victim, now 20, believed she was going on a family holiday. But after arriving at a village in Bangladesh in July 2016, she learned that she would be getting married within days. The father told her: ‘I have planned this for years.’ After refusing, she messaged her boyfriend in Leeds, telling him her father had said: ‘It’s going to take seconds to slice your neck and cut your body into three pieces and throw you into the river, you whore.’

While her parents were out, the victim was allowed out for a walk with relatives, but she ran when she saw her rescuers.

Matthew Prouten, of the British consulate, said: ‘There were adults running up the road after her. She was hysterical. She thought her uncle had a gun. We were reacting to a threat to life.’