23/10/2013

Couple Jailed For 18 Years For Trafficking And Rape Of Deaf Girl

A husband and wife have been jailed for a total of 18 years for the rape of a girl that they trafficked into the UK and kept as a servant in the basement of their home.

A trial heard that 83-year-old Ilyas Ashar and his 68-year-old wife Tallat brought the victim, who is both deaf and mute, from Pakistan to the UK in 2000, when she was 10 years old.

She was made to live in the basement of the couples homes in Eccles, Salford.

She was repeatedly raped and beaten, and forced to work for the family and their friends, according to reports.

At Manchester Crown Court Ilyas Ashar was jailed for 13 years for 13 counts of rape.

Tallat Ashar was jailed for five years for trafficking and benefit fraud; it was found that she had used the girls details to claim more than £30,000 in benefits and that several bank accounts had been set up in her name.

The couple's daughter, Faaiza Ashar, 46, was also sentenced with a 12-month community order after she was also found guilty of benefit fraud.

The case only arose in 2009 after trading standards officers accidentally discovered the victim at the couples home when they visited couples home to investigate an unrelated matter.

(MH/CD)

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