A couple who tricked their teenage daughter into travelling to Bangladesh in an attempt to force her to marry her first cousin have been convicted of forced marriage charges.

A jury of 11 men and one woman at Leeds crown court found the couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons, guilty of using violence, threats or coercion to force their daughter into marriage.

The three-week trial heard that in 2016 the couple’s daughter, then 18, was taken out of college during term time for what she thought was a six-week holiday to Bangladesh to see family and celebrate Eid.



Michelle Colborne QC, prosecuting, said the victim was told of the marriage plans less than a week after arriving in the country.

“[The victim] was stunned and she refused,” Colborne told the jury. “[Her father] told her that [the groom] had been chosen for her, that he was suitable and talked of the plan. When she refused, she sought out the support of the other defendant, her mother, who made it clear that this was a shared plan for her future.

“Her mother swore at her, reminded her that no was not an option and that if necessary there would be violence against her. She was later to encourage her husband to strike her. At no point did [the daughter] agree to the proposal and very quickly an impasse developed between them.”

Colborne said the father threatened the daughter when she refused to go along with the plan. “[Her father] would ask her, for instance, if she’d changed her mind yet and threatened to slit her throat if she didn’t comply.



“She stopped eating and was deeply distressed. He made reference to the fact that he’d brought her up for 18 years with love, but that he’d chop her up in 18 seconds if she disrespected him.”

The woman was rescued days before the wedding was due to take place after her younger sister contacted the British high commission.

The jury was shown desperate messages sent by the daughter to her boyfriend back in Leeds after she found out about her parents’ plans. In a prerecorded interview, the woman – described in court as “highly westernised” – said she found the prospect of marrying her first cousin disgusting.

“As the days went by, verbal abuse turned to physical abuse and my dad hit me over the head one day. It was so bad that the whole room literally went black,” she said.

The teenager, who was studying for her A-levels at the time, warned her mother she would tell the authorities what had happened if she was forced to marry. “But my mum said there was no way that would happen because they were going to leave me there for a year so that I would get pregnant so that he [the first cousin] could get a visa,” she told the jury.

The defendants, who were accompanied in the dock by a Bengali interpreter, looked emotionless as the verdicts were read to them. They will be sentenced on 18 June and were told by the judge, Simon Phillips QC, to expect a jail term.

The Crown Prosecution Service said that the British high commission in Bangladesh, the government’s forced marriage unit and Bangladeshi police had worked together to rescue the woman and bring her back to the UK.



Michael Quinn, from the CPS, said: “[The complainant] showed courage in contacting the authorities for help, and provided valuable assistance with the investigation and prosecution of these offences.



“This successful prosecution sends a clear message that forced marriage is a very serious crime and those responsible will be prosecuted.”



The verdict comes a week after a woman was jailed for four and a half years at Birmingham crown court for forcing her daughter to marry in Pakistan, in the first successful prosecution of its type.