'You have no faith in God. I'm going to kill you before the community find out': Muslim father slapped and beat his 14-year-old daughter with a tennis racquet when she started dating white boy

The 43-year-old was furious about his teenage daughter's relationship

He was arrested after the worried boyfriend contacted police



The teenager was concerned the girl, now 16, had not texted him

Father admitted child cruelty and received a 21-week suspended sentence



A Muslim father slapped and beat his 14-year-old daughter for 'shaming' their community after he discovered she was having a secret affair with a white boy.



The 43-year-old flew into a rage after his shocked wife picked up the phone at their home in Blackburn, Lancashire, and overheard their child talking 'in explicit terms' about her relationship with the 15-year-old.

During an angry confrontation, the father told her: 'You have no faith in God. I'm going to kill you before the community find out.'

When she defied their pleas to stop the illicit romance, he 'whacked' her with a tennis racquet he kept in the boot of his car and in another incident, he grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her.

A Muslim father became enraged when he discovered his teenage daughter was seeing a white boy, Burnley Crown Court (pictured) heard

The father of three from a 'traditional Asian family' was later arrested after the boyfriend became concerned when the girl stopped sending text messages.

Now 16, she no longer lives at her family home in Blackburn and is still seeing the boy.

At Burnley Crown Court, the father, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the girl, admitted child cruelty.

He was given 21 weeks in jail, suspended for two years, with two years' supervision and must pay an £80 surcharge.

The court heard the girl would have been expected to enter into an arranged marriage with a boy of her own culture.

However, when she was 14, she began a relationship with the white boy.

Stephen Parker prosecuting said the girl knew her family would find it 'very, very hard' to deal with the fact she was having sex, let alone the fact her boyfriend wasn't from her culture.

She was found out after her shocked mother overheard her daughter talking about her relationship over the phone after she picked up an extension and listened in.

Mr Parker, prosecuting, said the phone call caused a 'great deal of tension' in the girl's family and she went to stay with her uncle as her parents were in extreme distress.

'The girl was driven home, dragged from the vehicle, thrown to the floor and as she put it was "whacked" several times with the racquet from the boot, as her father shouted: "Are you going to give me the phone?" 'She was taken inside, her school bag was searched and she was hit again with the bat and slapped'

When the victim's parents had confronted her, she had denied being in a sexual relationship saying the phone comments, to a friend, were a fantasy. She then secretly continued to see the young man.



The girl's parents were worried about whether the relationship was continuing and checked her phone and other devices, but the girl kept a 'secret' second phone and was walking home from a day's work experience outside lessons when was confronted by her father who stopped in his car in the street.

Mr Parker said: 'He got out and shouted to her to hand the phone over. She pretended to throw it away, but hid it in her clothing.



'The girl was driven home, dragged from the vehicle, thrown to the floor and as she put it was "whacked" several times with the racquet from the boot, as her father shouted: "Are you going to give me the phone?"

'She was taken inside, her school bag was searched and she was hit again with the bat and slapped.'

Mr Parker said weeks later, the girl secretly arranged to meet her boyfriend again but trouble broke out when her mother couldn't find her. When she got home, she was met on the stairway by her extremely angry father who hit her, causing her to fall.

On another occasion, a neighbour was supposed to take her to school, but the girl said she didn't need a lift and arranged to walk to school with her boyfriend. Her father later challenged her and shouted at her: 'You have no faith in God. I'm going to kill you before the community find out.'

He then grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her. Days after that, the girl's mother found two more mobile phones with messages between the teenagers and the boyfriend became very concerned when the texts stopped and contacted the police.

In mitigation, defence counsel Mohammed Nawaz, said the father was of 'exemplary character' and was described by neighbours, family and others in the community in 'warm, glowing and positive terms.'

Mr Nawaz said the father was a 'loving and devoted father' who at first feared his daughter was being used by an older man.

The lawyer added: 'He is now extremely contrite for his disgraceful behaviour. He didn't want to stop her being educated and didn't want her wed off at an early age.

'What he wanted for her was to get good grades and go to university.'

Passing sentence, Judge Jonathan Gibson told the father: 'Many, indeed I would like to think, all parents would be horrified to find out that were the case.

