Pak origin woman sent to jail for torturing daughter-in-laws in UK

In a statement to police,Nagina Akhtar,her daughter in law said,”Literally I lived in a prison,not a house. I was so frightened of her I would do as I was told.”

Bibi’s second victim,Nisbah,told the jury that her life had been “hell”,with Bibi using brushes,shoes and even an air freshener to beat her into working from 7am every day.

Nagina was given little more than a month off for the births of each of her three children,and was beaten into doing cleaning and cooking chores when the clothing business collapsed,the court heard.

None of them spoke English,and Bibi’s trial heard that they had seldom been allowed to leave the house. The brutality came to light after Nagina’s three-year-old son told staff at his nursery that his grandmother had caused the severe bruising on his mother’s hands.

The Judge,Robert Brown,said he had kept the sentence as short as he could because of Bibi’s age,health and mental state. She is expected to serve three and a half years. But she would need to be monitored for up to nine years from the beginning of her sentence,the judge said.

Bibi was convicted this year of falsely imprisoning Nagina between 1993 and 2006,Tazeem Akhtar from 2001 to 2003 and Nisbah Akhtar between 2005 and 2007. The women had come to Britain from Pakistan after arranged marriages to three of Bibi’s six children,who are their cousins.

Nagina,later retracted the claims and said her life in Blackburn had been “happy”,but she and her husband then moved to Halifax,West Yorkshire,and have broken off all contact with his parents.

After her escape from the house while Bibi was distracted,her husband Nadeem told police he had played no part in the marriage,as he already had a white partner.

Nisbah’s sister Tazeem,29,gave evidence by video-link from Pakistan,where she was abandoned by the family after her husband,Nahim,Bibi’s third son,rejected the marriage because he was living with a white partner and their two children.

An 18-year-old woman in Pakistan called Naeela was a fourth intended daughter-in-law,Joe Boyd,prosecuting,said. “She could have been exploited in the same way as the other three,” he said.