Parents took daughter to GP for virginity test, court told

AN IRANIAN couple who asked a GP to carry out a virginity test on their 18-year-old daughter after discovering she had a secret boyfriend, have gone on trial charged for subjecting her to coercive or controlling behaviour.

Mitra Eidiani, 42, and husband Ali Safaraei, 56, are thought to be the first parents to be charged under the law that was brought in three years ago to clamp down on people who subject their partners to psychological abuse.

The couple frogmarched their daughter, Sophia, to a clinic where a GP refused to examine her without the girl’s permission.

The teenager was also allegedly bitten by her mother and threatened with a kitchen knife by her father when they discovered she was in a relationship with Bailey Marshall-telfer, 18.

Kingston Crown Court heard how the pair took their daughter’s passport away and threatened to take her back to Iran to “marry a cousin”.

David Povall, prosecuting, said Ms Eidiani came home unexpectedly while Mr Marshall-telfer was at their house in Wandsworth, south London.

Sophia told the jury: “We panicked. I had no choice but to tell him to go on the roof. We were scared, we didn’t know what to expect and obviously it would be a shock for my mum.”

Mr Povall said Sophia’s father then returned home and she heard her mother begging him not to hurt her.

He added: “Her father came up to the room shouting at her angrily, telling her that he would kill her and insisting that he and his wife should take Sophia to the doctor so that it could be checked whether she was still a virgin.”

But when they got to the clinic, Dr Helen Lucas, the GP, refused to examine Sophia without her permission.

Ms Eidiani then accused the GP of not understanding their culture.

In a statement, Dr Lucas said: “I explained to Sophia I could not touch her without her permission and I would not examine her unless she consented.”

The jury heard that when the family returned home, Ms Eidiani was so angry she bit Sophia on the arm.

Speaking from behind a screen, Sophia told jurors: “My father then came into my room with a big kitchen knife and said: ‘You have to get checked’.”

Ms Eidiani later visited Mr Marshalltelfer at his place of work and allegedly threatened him.

The couple deny two counts of controlling or coercive behaviour and one count of making a threat to kill.

Ms Eidiani also denies one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The trial continues.