http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/01/man-made-wife-live-like-slave-domestic-servitude-faces-jail
Briton who made wife live like slave is first to be
jailed for domestic servitude
Safraz
Ahmed, 34, subjected Sumara Iram to an existence of ‘violence, intimidation,
aggression and misery’, court told
Londoner Safraz Ahmed, 34,
pleaded guilty to keeping his wife in domestic servitude. Photograph: AFP/Getty
Images
Friday
1 April 2016 17.01 BSTLast modified on Saturday 2 April 201601.20 BST
·
A man who treated his wife as a slave and
subjected her to an existence of “violence, intimidation, aggression and
misery” has been jailed following a pioneering trial which saw him become the
first Briton convicted of forcing their spouse into domestic servitude.
Prosecutors and police said they hoped the
case of Safraz Ahmed, a 34-year-old mechanic from south London who abused,
demeaned and taunted Sumara Iram over a two-year period, could see more
potential victims come forward.
Ahmed subjected Iram to “physical and mental
torture” after she came to the UK from Pakistan in late 2012 for an arranged
marriage into which she entered willingly and with initially high hopes,
Woolwich crown court was told.
He struck his wife, threw tins of cat food at
her, sent streams of abusive and demeaning text messages, and once told her to
jump in front of a vehicle or into a river, the judge, Christopher Hehir, was
told.
In her victim imapct statement, Iram said:
“Because the beatings happened regularly and for such small things I felt
worthless. I was not allowed to do what I wanted to do, I was never allowed to
step out of the house alone and I was not allowed to make friends, which means
I was never allowed to socialise; I felt like their prisoner.
“I cooked, I cleaned, I washed, I ironed,
looked after other people’s children and when things were not to the liking of
the family I was punished by beatings. I felt that there was only one purpose
of my life and that was to serve this family.”
Ahmed admitted enforced domestic servitude,
for which he was jailed for two years, and assault causing actual bodily harm
for breaking her nose, for which he received an eight-month term. The sentences
will run concurrently, meaning he could be free within 12 months, less than
half the time that Iram lived under his control.
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“This is a ground-breaking case which
demonstrates how far we have come in tackling modern-day slavery,” said Damaris
Lakin, a lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service. “We believe this is the
first conviction in England and Wales of a husband for holding his wife in
servitude.”
Lakin said prosecutors were “committed to
working with the police and other partner agencies to bring the perpetrators of
modern day slavery to justice and support victims to help them through the
prosecution process and beyond in the hope that they can rebuild their lives”.
The Home Office’s chief scientific adviser,
Professor Bernard Silverman, has estimated that in 2013 there were between
10,000 and 13,000 potential victims of modern slavery in the UK. This includes
includes women forced into prostitution, domestic staff, and workers in fields,
factories and fishing.
There are no specific estimates available of
how many spouses are subjected to domestic servitude.
The judge described a seemingly paradoxical
case in which the spouse arriving from Pakistan was well-educated and from a
liberal background, but arrived in the UK to find her British husband say her
only purpose was to care for him and his family. Iram, who has an MA in Islamic
studies, cooked, cleaned and carried out other domestic duties in days often
lasting from 5am to midnight.
Iram attended court to see her former husband
jailed, sitting opposite the glass-walled dock where he sat. She glanced at him
occasionally, but showed no emotion. Police have asked the media to not print
images of her lest she face retribution.
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Outlining the prosecution case, Caroline
Haughey said the pair had married in Pakistan in 2006 when Iram, now 29, was a
teenager. After a delay caused by her studies and visa issues she flew to
London in late 2012, anticipating “a harmonious household where she was an
equal”. Instead, Ahmed “told her he had married her so she could look after his
mother and his home,” she said.
Haughey described the physical and mental
abuse Ahmed meted out, which she said had left Iram with post-traumatic stress
disorder.
The court was told her husband once said to
her: “You are scared of being alone, but you are not scared of my beatings.” On
another occasion, when she begged his forgiveness, Ahmed said he found her
“disgusting”, and that she should jump in front of a car or into a river.
“It was an atmosphere of fear, constantly
punctuated by violence,” Haughey said.
Ahmed had once hit his wife for, as he viewed it,
failing to tend properly to his sister, the court heard. If the family told her
to “stand on one leg” she should do it without question, she said.
Iram came to police attention in February 2014
after neighbours saw her outside the family home in just a dress and
flip-flops, before her husband dragged her back inside by her hair.
Officers realised she had a broken nose and
black eye and arrested Ahmed, but they released him the next day when Iram
signed a document asking for him to be freed, saying she was not under
pressure.
Following the conviction police accepted they
could have removed Iram then, sparing her another 18 months with her husband.
“There are always lesson that the police can
learn to improve their practices,” DS Pal Singh of the Metropolitan police
said. “With the benefit of hindsight, this case could have perhaps been better
placed for the victim if it had started in February 2014, when she first came
to police attention.”
She eventually left the house in August 2015
after an incident where she tried to kill herself. She phoned the police, who
persuaded her to go to a refuge.
Polly Harrar, the founder of the Sharan
Project, which helps victims of forced marriages from south Asian communites,
said the conviction suggested there were large numbers of victims living
similarly restricted lives in the UK.
“This case will open the door to more
prosecutions,” she said. “This woman was restricted in terms of going outside
the home. She was brought here to be a slave in effect. This is just the tip of
an iceberg. We have dealt with many similar cases. This case is really good for
raising awareness of the problem.”
Offering mitigation for Ahmed, Cathy Ryan said
he changed his mind during the gap between their marriage in Pakistan and her
arrival in the UK.
He was frustrated at the marriage, Ryan said,
adding: “It’s right to say that Sumara bore the brunt of this frustration.”
Singh, who led the investigation after Iram
finally fled the family home in Charlton, south-east London, said it was likely
many more such cases existed, and appealed for victims to contact police. “We
can help, and as the judge said today, the courts do not accept cultural
differences for offending,” Singh said. “Neither should the police.”
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