Sex-Slave Trial Girl Was 'stabbed For Smiling At Man', Court Told

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A woman allegedly imprisoned in a cellar, raped and kept as a virtual slave while a child was stabbed in the stomach for smiling, a jury was told. It is alleged that she was locked in a cellar by Ilyas Ashar, 83, and his wife Tallat Ashar, 66, at their home on Cromwell Road in Eccles, Salford, and forced to sew, wash, cook and clean without pay.

A woman allegedly imprisoned in a cellar, raped and kept as a virtual slave while a child was stabbed in the stomach for smiling, a jury was told.

The woman, who is deaf and unable to speak, is said to have been subjected to years of abuse after being trafficked into Britain from Pakistan.

It is alleged that she was locked in a cellar by Ilyas Ashar, 83, and his wife Tallat Ashar, 66, at their home on Cromwell Road in Eccles, Salford, and forced to sew, wash, cook and clean without pay.

A jury at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court was told she slept on the cellar’s concrete floor without access to a toilet until she was rescued by police in June 2009.

She is also said to have been regularly beaten, repeatedly raped and assaulted.

The couple are on trial and deny any mistreatment. The woman gave police a series of 14 video-recorded interviews using sign language.

Jurors yesterday continued to watch the recorded interviews.

In one recording, the woman who cannot be named for legal reasons, described how she was viciously assaulted at the home after she returned a smile from Ilyas Ashar.

She said his wife Tallat saw the exchange and got ‘really mad’, plunging a kitchen knife into the girl’s stomach, causing her to vomit and bleed heavily.

Through a signer, the woman told police in an interview: "The old lady was watching me and I was really frightened. The old lady was really mad because I smiled back. She saw me smiling at him and she stabbed me with a knife. It was really sore.

"It was bleeding. It was really bad and I was being sick. It was really sharp."

The woman said the couple used cloths and plasters to treat her. She added that after ‘three sleeps’ she believed she was taken to a male doctor and given tablets, but the wound was not mentioned.

She said her cleaning and cooking duties continued. She said: "I was still woken up and I would do different jobs in the house. I did not really get to rest that much."

Earlier, the woman told how the couple had arranged a passport for her. She told police in interviews she remembered having her photograph taken and using her thumbprint on a document. She added that she recalled seeing ‘staff’ when she landed in the country but she could not understand them.

She told police: "There were staff that I looked at. They looked at me and they looked at my passport. They were talking and I did not understand them."

The jury also heard that the woman was shuttled back and forth from Pakistan to Britain several times to cook and clean.

Ilyas Ashar denies charges of false imprisonment, human trafficking and 12 counts of rape. Tallat Ashar denies charges of false imprisonment, trafficking, sexual assault and unlawful wounding. The couple, and their daughter Faaiza Ashar, 44, also deny benefit fraud charges.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/eccles-sex-slave-trial-girl-was-stabbed-681955