Mick Hartley

A year ago Shazad Khan was imprisoned for the murder of his young wife, Sabia Rani:

Shazad Khan, 25, from Roundhay, Leeds, was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years after a trial at Leeds Crown Court.

The court heard he beat Sabia Rani, 19, severely over several weeks last year leaving her with serious tissue damage and 12 damaged ribs.

Police said Sabia Rani’s home had effectively become her prison.

Now in a landmark case Khan’s sisters and mother have been found guilty of allowing the death to happen:

Two sisters wept and their mother screamed abuse when all three were found guilty yesterday of turning a blind eye to the horrific murder of a young woman in their house.

Sabia Rani, 19, was systematically beaten and abused by her husband, Shazad Khan, over three months at the home that they shared in Leeds. When she died she had 15 broken ribs and bruising over 85 per cent of her body and, according to a pathologist, looked like the victim of a catastrophic road accident.

Khan was convicted of her murder a year ago. Yesterday his mother, Phullan Bibi, 52, his sisters, Nazia Naureen, 28, and Uzma Khan, 23, and Uzma’s husband Majid Hussain, 28, were all found guilty of allowing the death of a vulnerable adult under the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004.

The judge told the family that they should be prepared for custodial sentences before they were bailed overnight to reappear before the court today.

As the jury delivered the verdicts all three women began wailing and shouting in the dock. The sisters hugged each other screaming “not guilty, not guilty” while their mother stood up and shouted abuse, slamming her hands down on the bench, before collapsing on the floor…

Mr Myerson [QC for the prosecution] said that each of the defendants must have known that she was in pain, and the cause of her suffering, but did nothing to stop it.

Uzma Khan claimed in evidence at her brother’s trial in January last year that the injuries were caused by evil spirits and black magic. Mr Myerson said: “It is not a question of faith. It is a question of evidence. No scientific report has ever stated that evil spirits could have beaten this woman to death. The evil spirit that beat Sabia Rani was Shazad Khan and Uzma knew that.”

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said that the defendants were among the first people in the country to be convicted of allowing the death of a vulnerable adult. Malcolm Taylor, from the CPS, said: “Sabia Rani was the victim of horrific violence at the hands of her husband while her family chose to do nothing.

“If families or other people with a duty to look after those who need protection deliberately choose not to do so, their neglect will not be ignored by the law enforcement agencies, and prosecution will follow.”

Video here.