Family's role in domestic violence

By Rebecca Kelly
BBC News, Yorkshire

Sabia Rani suffered broken ribs and severe tissue damage

In the weeks leading up to her death Sabia Rani, 19, was beaten so badly a pathologist described her injuries as similar to those sustained by being hit by a train.

Even before her husband Shazad Khan's conviction for her murder, in January 2007, an investigation had been mounted into four members of his family.

They all lived in the same house as the couple in Oakwood Grange, Roundhay, Leeds.

In February, Khan's mother Phullan Bibi, 52, his two sisters Uzma Khan, 23, and Nazia Naureen, 28, and her husband Majid Hussain, also 28, were found guilty of allowing the death of a vulnerable adult.

His mother has been jailed for three years and his sisters for two. Hussain was given a one-year suspended sentence.

Sabia Rani's injuries would make a person's stomach turn Malcolm Taylor, Crown Prosecution Service lawyer

According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) the conviction forms one of only three successful convictions for this offence, in the UK, to date.

Malcolm Taylor, a specialist case work lawyer, who worked on the prosecution against Khan and his relatives, said: "It wasn't the easiest case because the evidence needed piecing together like a jigsaw.

"But we, like the jury, were satisfied that the family knew the suffering Ms Rani endured and did nothing to stop it.

"Sabia Rani's injuries would make a person's stomach turn."

The family were tried under a relatively new law, the Domestic Violence and Victims Act 2004.

Black magic

Only Khan's brother, who stood as a prosecution witness in his trial, and Khan's elderly father, Pola Khan, escaped prosecution for Ms Rani's killing.

Khan was jailed for a minimum of 15 years

West Yorkshire Police were satisfied they played no part in her death.

The family's defence blamed Ms Rani's death on "black magic or witchcraft", initially claiming they knew nothing of the violence she had endured.

But, the prosecution team used Shazad Khan's murder trial to build up a dossier of evidence against each family member.

A picture of Ms Rani's life since her arrival from Pakistan in February 2006 was pieced together.

Phullan Bibi was the matriarch of the family, who saw her son's new bride as nothing more than domestic help at the "bottom of the food chain".

'Closed ranks'

Ms Rani spoke no English and had no contact with the outside world.

She had come to Leeds as Khan's wife in an arranged marriage months before her death in May 2006.

She was the daughter of Phullan Bibi's sister, making her and Khan first cousins.

What the CPS found disturbing, as their investigation developed, was that Ms Rani's entire family "closed ranks to protect each other."

Mr Taylor said: "After Sabia Rani's death we went to Pakistan to visit her family, they were all part of the same family, they didn't want any part of our investigation about their daughter.

"There was just a wall of silence, which they saw as protecting their relations."

Horrific pain

Exactly what happened in the teenager's final hours was never made clear, but medical evidence painted a picture of horrific pain and beatings in the family home.

The four relatives said she passed away in the bath but this was refuted by medical evidence which suggested that Ms Rani's injuries were so extensive she would not have been able to lift a limb.

One theory is that the family dumped her body in the bath in a bid to revive the young bride or to cover up what happened.

Mr Taylor added: "Without question it is the worst case of domestic violence I have ever worked on."