Parents jailed over forced marriage bid
A husband and wife who were described as “monsters” by a daughter they threatened with death if she did not go ahead with a forced marriage in Bangladesh have both been jailed. She was rescued in a dramatic operation.
A HUSBAND and wife who were described as “monsters” by a daughter they threatened with death if she did not go ahead with a forced marriage in Bangladesh have both been jailed.
The man was sent to prison for four and a half years at Leeds Crown Court yesterday and his wife was jailed for three and a half years by a judge, who heard that their 18-year-old daughter had to be rescued from a remote village in a dramatic operation by the British High Commission involving armed police.
None of those involved can be named due to legal restrictions imposed on the case.
In an impact statement read to the court, the woman, who is from Leeds and is now aged 20, described how she has had to assume a new identity and lives in fear and is hiding from her family and community.
She said: “I know I will always have to remain cautious but, knowing those monsters are going to be in prison, I feel the uttermost freedom in my heart.”
She added: “I want other girls to know that forcing someone to marry is wrong. I want to be able to give a message to my siblings and other people who find themselves in this situation that life does go on.
“I want my elders to know that it is illegal and you can’t treat family like this. I want to be able to hold my head high knowing that I stood up for what is right.
“I want to be able to live knowing that I will not be a victim for my parents’ honour and reputation. I will not live in shame. I am now free.”
The court heard how the woman was taken to Bangladesh with other members of her family for what they were told was a holiday. But their parents had made plans for her wedding to her first cousin. Once she was told what was to happen, she reacted vehemently against it and her father hit her, the court heard, with her mother’s encouragement.
The judge was told how her father said he would “chop her up in 18 seconds” if she continued to reject the marriage. But she managed to alert the police through her boyfriend in the UK and the court heard some of her desperate messages she left for him on his phone.
Judge Simon Phillips QC said of the recordings: “Her terror and distress is palpable.”
The High Commission was alerted and got her out of the village using armed escorts.
Judge Phillips was told how she was billed £1,000 for her flight home, which she was allowed to pay back in £5 instalments after she arrived back in the UK in what the judge called “a state of destitution and complete abandonment”.
The court heard how the woman was born in the UK, lived a Westernised lifestyle and was hoping to go to university.
Dafydd Enoch QC, defending her father, told the court: “These events are not borne out of malice, hate, greed or prejudice. They were borne of deep-seated culture.”
The defendants showed no emotion as they were given the prison sentences, but the wife shook her head as the judge ordered that £8,000 which was found on the couple when they were arrested should be given to their daughter.
He told the pair he believed the cash was to have been used for the abandoned wedding.
The couple were found guilty earlier this year of forced marriage and one count of using violence, threats or coercion to force their daughter into marriage after a three-week trial.
It is thought to be only the second case of its kind to have involved court proceedings in this country.
I want my elders to know that it is illegal. The 20-year-old victim of a forced marriage plot.