A Pakistani young man and his parents were sentenced to over 7 years in jail in the UK for mentally and physically torturing his wife.
According to BBC reports, Asgar Sheikh, 31, his father Khalid, 55, and mother Shabnam, 52, were jailed for seven years and nine months at Leeds Crown Court. All three were found guilty of allowing a vulnerable adult to suffer harm after a trial last year.
Ambreen Fatima Sheikh suffered life-limiting injuries due to their abuse. The court was told by the victim that she was forced to take medication and doused with a corrosive substance.
Ms. Sheikh also belongs to Pakistan, and her marriage to Asgar was an arranged marriage.
During the trial, it was revealed that the family was unhappy with Ms. Sheikh’s housework and chores soon after she came to the UK.
Ms. Sheikh was forced to take a diabetes medicine that seriously hurt her brain. This happened in 2015 when she came to the UK from Pakistan after an arranged marriage. She was also poured a harmful substance, possibly cleaning fluid, on her in her family’s home in Huddersfield, just before she was taken to the hospital in August 2015.
Now 39 years old, she can’t recover and is in a deep unconscious state, which means she will never get better, the court learned. The judge said it is a very severe injury, almost as bad as death.
Before her collapse, she was healthy and might have been a teacher in Pakistan, according to some evidence. People who knew her said she was smart, cheerful, and had big plans.
At first, everyone thought she would die, but she started breathing on her own when they took her off the machine helping her breathe. However, she can only eat through a tube, and prosecutors say she will eventually die because of what happened to her.
The police checked on her in July 2015 but reported she was fine. The judge didn’t give much importance to their report because Ms. Sheikh didn’t speak much English, and her father-in-law was there during the visit.
The judge said there was a delay of two to three days between Ms. Sheikh falling unconscious and the family calling an ambulance. She told the defendants that it’s not realistic to think they didn’t know about her condition and urgent need for medical help.
The police investigator said it was a terrible case where a healthy woman was seriously hurt and lost her future at the hands of the people who should have protected her.
Asgar, Khalid, Shabnam, and Asgar’s sister, Shagufa Sheikh, were found guilty of letting a vulnerable person be harmed after a trial last year. Asgar, Shabnam, and Shagufa were also found guilty of trying to interfere with the legal process. All of them, including Asgar’s brother Sakalayne Sheikh, were found guilty of planning to interfere with the legal process. Sakalayne got a six-month suspended sentence, and Shagufa got an 18-month suspended sentence.
