London - In the first successful prosecution of its kind, a woman has been jailed for forcing her teenage daughter to marry a relative almost twice her age.
The mother ‘groomed’ her daughter, then 17, into travelling from their Birmingham home to marry a 33-year-old man who had made her pregnant when she was 13.
Yesterday, the mother, 45, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed for four and a half years at Birmingham Crown Court – the first person in England convicted under forced marriage legislation.
The girl came to the attention of Birmingham’s children’s services department after a GP highlighted her pregnancy at 13 – after which she had an abortion. But the mother convinced social workers it was the result of ‘sneaky’ sex with a boy.
Shortly before her 18th birthday, the woman took her to Pakistan to marry and threatened the youngster with black magic if she told anyone.
Judge Patrick Thomas QC said the girl ‘was sold for her passport’ so her husband could get into Britain, adding: ‘To enter a forced marriage is to be coerced into a situation where multiple rapes are likely.’