Cardiff Rapist Who Forced His Victim to Marry Him Is the First Person Jailed under a Forced Marriage Law

WALES ONLINE: The man is the first person in the UK to be prosecuted under forced marriage laws introduced a year ago

A Cardiff man has become the first person in the UK to be prosecuted under forced marriage laws introduced a year ago.

The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was jailed for 16 years after making a 25-year-old woman marry him under duress last year.

Merthyr Crown Court heard the already married man systematically raped his victim for months before threatening to go public with hidden camera footage of her showering unless she became his wife.

'Irrational obsession'

The 34-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, developed an “irrational obsession” with his victim and lured her to his home under the promise of a get-together with friends.

But when she arrived at his home in Cardiff, the woman found the property empty before the curtains were drawn and the front door locked.

A judge then told of how the terrified woman - a devout Muslim - was bound and gagged with scarves before music was played loudly to drown out her cries for help.

But the woman’s ordeal was far from over.

She was shown secret footage of her showering moments after her virginity had been cruelly stolen and her attacker later threatened to make the video public unless she married him. » | Benjamin Wright | Wednesday, June 10, 2015


TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Première condamnation au Royaume-Uni pour un mariage force : Un homme qui avait contraint une jeune femme à l'épouser a été condamné à 16 ans de prison. Une première depuis l'entrée en vigueur de la loi sur les mariages forcés. ¶ Un homme marié de 34 ans a été condamné à seize ans de prison par un tribunal du Pays-de-Galles pour avoir contraint une jeune femme à l'épouser. Il s'agit de la première application de la législation de 2014 contre les unions forcées. ¶ Le condamné est un homme d'affaires gallois, dont l'identité n'a pas été divulguée. Il a aussi plaidé coupable de viols, bigamie et voyeurisme, ont précisé les services du procureur de la couronne (CPS), dans un communiqué. » | ats/Newsnet | mercredi 10 juin 2015

UK to Rule Forced Marriage a Criminal Offence
The British government plans to make it a criminal offence to force anyone into a marriage they do not want. But finding and prosecuting parents who break the law could be easier said than done. Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee reports from London

Forced Marriage Expected to Become a Crime
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Forcing someone to marry is set to be made a crime after David Cameron rejected claims that doing so would simply drive the practice underground.

The move, expected to be announced tomorrow would represent a victory for campaigners who argued that only full criminalisation would deter abusive families.

Almost 1,700 people a year in Britain – most of them women from Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds – come forward to voice fears that their family is plotting to force them into a marriage against their will.

But the figure is thought to be only the tip of the iceberg with many afraid for their lives or fearing that they would be ostracised if they resisted.

It emerged earlier this year that a five-year-old girl had been forced into a marriage and last year alone the Home Office’s dedicated Forced Marriage Unit dealt with 400 children. An 87-year-old woman was also a suspected victim.

David Cameron has condemned the practice as like “slavery” but it is not currently illegal in Britain to make someone to get married against their will. » | John Bingham, Social Affairs Editor | Thursday, June 07, 2012

Zwangs-Ehen werden strafbar
Eine erzwungene Ehe verstösst gegen die Menschenrechte. Trotzdem werden viele Frauen zwangsverheiratet. Solche Ehen sollen künftig in der Schweiz unter Strafe stehen

Muslim Mother Who Sent Her School Age Daughters to Pakistan to Marry Their Cousins Is Jailed for 3 Years
Judge Clement Goldstone QC told the mother, 'You have absolutely no idea of the enormity of what you have done'. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL Online: A devout Muslim mother of five has become one of the first mums in Britain to be jailed after forcing her two teenage daughters to marry their cousins.

The woman, 39, flew her two girls aged 14 and 15 to Pakistan on the pretext of a family holiday only for them to discover a joint wedding had secretly been arranged for them with two suitors.

The grooms-to-be then tied the knot with the two terrified sisters in a joint ceremony as their mother looked on before the girls were forced to become their new husbands' sex slaves.

During the girls' ordeal their mother from Manchester told her eldest daughter that unless she consumated the marriage, she would 'tie her to the bed, blindfold her and strip her' and watch to make sure she had sex with her new husband.

Two weeks after arriving in Pakistan in June 2007, the mother finalised arrangements for a wedding for the younger of the two daughters to a first cousin.

Two weeks after, both daughters were married in a joint ceremony.

Manchester Crown Court heard the mother was arrested after their daughters told their teachers what happened in February 2008 following their return to the UK.

They were immediately taken into care. >>> By Daily Mail Reporter | Thursday, May 21, 2009

London Doctor Is Held as Forced Marriage Hostage
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: Race is on to release trainee GP lured to Bangladesh by family, held captive, beaten, and about to marry a stranger against her will. Nina Lakhani reports

British lawyers were this weekend working frantically to rescue a London doctor who has been beaten and held captive in Bangladesh in an attempt to force her into marriage. Dr Humayra Abedin, known as Dorothy to her friends, this weekend faces being forced to marry a complete stranger, unless efforts by lawyers to free her, using new powers, succeed.

Dr Abedin is being held hostage by her family in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, where she is thought to have been gagged, bound and violently beaten to get her to comply with her parents' wishes. The 33-year-old trainee GP is depressed, suicidal and without hope, according to an email she managed to send to a close friend last Friday. This is the first time friends have heard from Dr Abedin for more than three months.

Her parents and uncle were yesterday served with a Forced Marriage Order issued by the British High Court on Friday. Dr Abedin, who has worked as a doctor in the Britain since 2002, is among the first cases to be heard under the Forced Marriage Act which came into force on 25 November. The move came after the family ignored orders from the Bangladeshi high court to bring Dr Abedin to court.

The new legislation allows judges to issue protection orders to prevent forced marriage and help to rescue victims who have already been married off. Those convicted of forcing people into marriage can be jailed for up to two years. >>> | December 7, 2008

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