A couple who threatened to murder and “chop up” their daughter after tricking her into travelling to Bangladesh for a forced marriage with her cousin has been jailed for eight years.
The husband and wife were described as “monsters” by the girl, who was just 18 at the time and had to be rescued from a remote village in an operation involving armed police.
Her ordeal began in 2016, when the parents told her they were travelling to Bangladesh for a holiday to visit relatives. When they arrived in the isolated location, they said she must marry the close relative.
After the teenager refused, she was assaulted and her father threatened to slit her throat and to “chop her up in 18 seconds”, the BBC reports.
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.
“I want other girls to know that forcing someone to marry is wrong,” adding: “I was betrayed by the two people who are supposed to protect, love and keep you safe.”
British Teenager ‘Wept’ During Forced Marriage to Man Who Impregnated Her at 13 https://t.co/FtUolkMaYU
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 16, 2018
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.”
Following a three-week trial earlier this year, the couple were found guilty of forced marriage and a count of using violence, threats, or coercion to force their daughter into marriage.
Peter Mann, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This successful prosecution and the custodial sentences imposed send a clear message that forced marriage is a very serious crime and those responsible will be prosecuted.”
Earlier this year, the UK saw its first prosecution for forced marriage when a mother was given four-and-a-half years for marrying her daughter off to a family member in Pakistan.
The girl had been impregnated by the man when she was just 13 years old and he was 29, which the mother saw as a “marriage contract”.
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