A British Bangladeshi couple, who tricked their 18-year-old daughter into travelling to Bangladesh in an attempt to force her to marry her first cousin, have been found guilty of forced marriage charges in the UK this week.
A jury at Leeds Crown Court convicted the couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons, of using violence, threats or coercion to force their daughter into marriage.
Prosecutor Michelle Colborne told the court that the victim was told of the marriage plans less than a week after arriving in Bangladesh in July 2016. She was reportedly only told that she was being taken to her country of origin on a six-week holiday to visit relatives and celebrate Eid.
Judge Simon Phillips told the couple that they can expect "immediate imprisonment" when they are sentenced on Jun 18.
The victim, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court her father said he had planned this for years.
“He said the guy is really suitable, ‘I've given him money for university, and he's a really attractive guy for round here'. He was trying to get me to say yes, but at no point did I say yes. I thought it was disgusting because it was my first cousin and stood my ground," she told the court in a pre-recorded interview.
The teenager, who was born and grew up Leeds, northern England, was reportedly told she would "live like a queen" with her new husband and that rejecting the proposal would "bring shame" on her parents.
She also said her mother had pressured her father into hitting her, based on the belief it would stop her "rebelling" against the marriage.
The teenager, who was still completing her school studies at the time, had told her mother that if she was forced to marry, she would file a report to authorities saying what had happened.
She told the jury: "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."
With the help of her younger sister, she was able to contact the British High Commission in Dhaka, who rescued her days before the wedding was due to take place.
The court was shown desperate messages sent by the daughter to her boyfriend back in Leeds after she found out about her parents’ plans.
Her parents, who were accompanied in court by a Bengali interpreter, did not react as the verdicts were read to them in court on Tuesday.
The legal offence of forced marriage came into effect in the UK in June 2014, but prosecutions have been rare. Last week, a British Pakistani mother was jailed for forcing her daughter to marry a relative almost twice her age.