Deaf and dumb girl tells of life as a slave locked up in cellar

LONDON: A deaf and dumb girl trafficked into Britain to act as a slave to an elderly couple for almost a decade yesterday used sign language to tell of her life of horror.

Locked in a cellar each night from the age of 10 years, she was allegedly raped and forced to do household chores, including cooking, cleaning, sewing, and washing.

If she was too slow, Ilyas Ashar, 83, and his wife Tallat, 66, would beat her around the head or drag her by her hair, a court heard.

Yesterday the girl told a jury how she would sit crying for hours locked in a cellar. Judge Peter Lakin said the girl had been questioned by police 14 times. All the interviews were recorded and will be viewed by the jury.

In the first interview the girl, who is profoundly deaf and cannot speak, used sign language to tell of her life as a slave.

She said she was held prisoner in a basement of the house in Eccles, Greater Man- chester, for nine years and forced to sleep on a concrete floor without a bed or toilet.

The girl said she was brought to Britain from Pakistan and sent to live with the Ashars to do chores. She told the court how she would be woken up by Mrs Ashar at 7am every day and hardly had time to eat or drink. She said she worked very hard cooking and cleaning for hours and “they used to hit me“.

The girl claimed she would then be forced back into the cellar and the door was locked.

Shown a photo of Mr Ashar, who allegedly repeatedly raped her, the girl said: “The old man, he’s bad. He’s the one who has sex with me.”

The pair were arrested after police went to their house in Eccles in June 2009 to find the girl asleep in the cellar.

Earlier the court heard how the girl first arrived in Britain on June 24, 2000, with a passport stating she was 19. However, medical tests showed the girl was likely to have been about 10. – Daily Mail