Mother who duped daughter into travelling to Pakistan for forced marriage jailed in landmark UK prosecution

The girl was 17 when she was forced to marry an older man
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Fiona Simpson23 May 2018

A "cruel" mother who duped her "frightened" teenage daughter into travelling to Pakistan and forcing her to marry has been jailed in a landmark prosecution for the UK.

The first successful prosecution of its kind in Britain saw the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sentenced to four-and-a-half years behind bars.

She was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court today.

The woman was convicted of deceiving the victim to go to Pakistan, in order to enter into a false marriage and forced marriage.

She was later convicted of perjury over lying about the incident in the High Court.

A jury heard how the 17-year-old victim had sobbed as she was married to a male relative 16 years her senior.

What are the UK laws surrounding forced marriage?

 

The new offence of forced marriage came into effect on in June 2014, but prosecutions have been rare.

In June 2015, a man was jailed at Merthyr Crown Court for offences including forced marriage, while there is at least one other live case on-going in the courts.

The Forced Marriage Unit - a joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Home Office team - provided support to about 1,200 potential cases in 2017, a Government spokesman said, making the UK a "world leader" in tackling the problem.

Since being introduced in 2008, more than 1,500 forced marriage protection orders have also been made, preventing people from being forced to wed and assisting in repatriating victims.Jurors heard how as the girl had approached her 18th birthday, she was tricked by her mother into going to Pakistan on what she believed was a family holiday.

Giving evidence during the trial, the girl told how wedding preparations went ahead despite her objections.

The couple were then married in September 2016, after she had celebrated her 18th birthday.

The teenager had described how she was taken to get ready for the ceremony, and there an imam gave her papers to sign and asked if she wanted to get married.

The victim - under pressure from her mother - had to say "I do" or "I accept" three times, before signing.

Jurors heard the complainant recall how she cried to her mother, who continued leading her by the arm to meet her husband-to-be, and then put on her ring.

She said: "I didn't want to get married to him.

The girl was previously forced to undergo an abortion after the man took her virginity when she was just 13, the court heard.

Judge Patrick Thomas QC told the mother during sentencing: "You had cruelly deceived her. She was frightened, alone, held against her will, being forced into a marriage she dreaded.

"You must have known that was her state of mind. Yet for your own purposes, you drove the marriage through.

"Her courage and respect for the truth throughout these proceedings have been admirable, and are a marked contrast to your own cowardice and deceit, continuing right through this trial and no doubt hereafter."

The judge added: "You have sought to blame her for everything, and yourself have accepted responsibility for nothing."

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