Couple took underage sons abroad for marriage

BBC

A husband and wife have been handed suspended prison sentences after taking their teenage sons to Pakistan to be married.

The pair from Nottingham, who have not been named for legal reasons, took their sons – who were under the age of 18 – to Pakistan in early 2023 to be married.

On Friday, Nottingham Crown Court heard it was originally planned for the bride, from Pakistan, to be married to one of the brothers. However, when he did not like her, she was married to the other.

The couple were each sentenced to two months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, after pleading guilty to carrying out conduct for the purpose of causing a child under the age of 18 to enter into a marriage.

The court heard the husband and wife, in their 50s and 40s, were unaware of a change in the law that made it a criminal offence to cause a child under 18 to enter a marriage, even in the absence of coercion.

The law also covers religious or traditional ceremonies that are not legally binding in the England and Wales, even if taken overseas.

The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022 came into force in on 27 February 2023 and removed the previous position, which allowed people aged 16 and 17 to marry with parental consent.

The couple were arrested in June 2023 after concerns were raised to police by a place of education, the court heard.

An investigation found the couple travelled to Pakistan with their sons in April 2023, seeking someone for them to marry.

‘Boys wanted to marry’

They initially denied that was the case, and claimed they had been on a family holiday, but the court heard messages and photographs on their phones made their intentions clear.

Two months before the couple travelled to Pakistan, on 13 February, the father had sent a message saying he was looking for a “rishta” – which can mean a marriage proposal – for both of his sons.

When asked whether that was what his children wanted, he replied: “Yes brother, my sons don’t want to mess around.

On 29 April, the mother sent a message saying one of her sons “doesn’t like the girl” and was advised to ask him again.

When she replied to say she had already asked “five or six times”, she was told if he still did not agree, they could “do an engagement rather than a Nikkah” [an Islamic wedding ceremony], the court heard.

The woman was then married to the other brother in a Nikkah ceremony and it was initially planned that she would move to the UK. However, while the couple remain married, the wife currently lives in Pakistan, the court heard.

To be a legal marriage for UK purposes, a Nikkah is required to be done in registered premises, but it is binding under Islamic and Pakistani law.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge James Sampson accepted there was “no evidence of threats, violence or coercion”, adding the parents – who had no previous convictions – acted on “misguided cultural beliefs, rather than malice”.

The court heard there were no ongoing safeguarding concerns.

However, the judge said the couple had a responsibility to safeguard their children’s best interests.

Sampson said: “Balancing these considerations in my view, including the public abhorrence to this practice, there has to be a custodial sentence.”

The judge added: “One must not forget the other victim here, the bride.

“Although the bride is said to have been 18 at the time, it is right to observe that having been rejected by one son, she became available to the other as if she were a piece of chattel, in other words, a piece of property.”

The couple were free to walk out of the courtroom, but were ordered to each undertake 100 hours of unpaid work in the community.

In a statement following the sentencing, Emma Cornell, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Child marriage laws are in place to protect children from the harm done by entering a lifelong commitment at such an early age.

“These defendants disregarded that protection by taking the boys to Pakistan to be married.

“The law applies wherever the offending takes place and, on their return, these two defendants were rightly held to account.”

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HM Courts and Tribunals Service