A 16-year-old girl turned up at a police station in her pyjamas on her wedding night claiming she had been forced by her family to marry a man she had only met once.
The girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told officers that she would be taken to Pakistan and shot and everybody back home would be told it was suicide.
She had fled her wedding reception, which was attended by up to 1,000 guests, and arrived at a police station “in her pyjamas and in a distressed state”.
Also death threats had previously been made against her if she refused to marry. Two women have been accused of conspiring to force the girl to marry breaching court orders already banning any arranged wedding.
Neelim Sultana, representing one of the women, said her client was “of good character” and strongly denied having anything to do with arranging the wedding.
Gemma Lindfield, counsel for the second defendant, said her client “was aware of the orders but not the terms of those orders” and also denied any breach.
Both defendants were refused bail and remanded to appear again before the county court for an administrative hearing on Friday May 31.
The court heard that in November last year His Honour Judge Sir Gavyn Arthur made three court orders against one of the defendants stopping her from arranging the child’s marriage either in the UK or abroad, forbidding the woman to enlist another person’s help in doing so, and prohibiting any harassment of that child.
The orders were backed by powers of arrest. But in April, despite the orders being made, it is alleged the girl was married at a religious wedding ceremony and in May a large reception attended ‘by between 550 and 1,000 guests’ was held at a city hotel celebrating the event.
