A 10-year-old deaf and dumb girl was a victim of child trafficking after she was taken to Britain by an elderly couple to act as a sex slave.
She was taken from her home in Pakistan to serve 84-year-old Ilyas Ashar and his wife, Tallat. She was allegedly forced to sleep in a cellar while being repeatedly raped by Ashar.
She was also forced to carry out all the menial chores like cooking, cleaning, sewing, washing and ironing.
Ashar and his 67-year-old wife now face jail after being convicted of trafficking for exploitation and benefit fraud.
According to reports, the girl, now 20, talks about arriving in the UK on June 24, 2000. She was given free board and lodgings with the Ashars and was initially given gifts such as bracelets.
Then she began being given menial jobs and was often berated.
‘I was sad and weak because I was working so hard. I had to clean all the time and that was it – that was my life. I’d cook and clean for hours.’ - she recalled
Lights in the cellar would be flicked on and off when her captors needed her. ‘The lady got angry because I was making too much noise, but I wouldn’t know I was making noise.
‘I would be sitting in there crying for hours and hours, sitting alone.’
Shown a photo of Mr Ashar, the girl said: ‘The old man, he’s bad. He’s the one who has sex with me.’
Peter Cadwallader, prosecuting at the first trial, said the girl was also made to clean for friends and relations of the Ashars. He added: ‘She was physically abused, she was sexually abused and she was exploited economically. She had nowhere to go. Who could she have turned to? She knew nothing else.’
The Ashars illegally claimed housing benefit and income support using her name. They were arrested in June 2009 after police went to the house about a separate matter and found the girl in the cellar.
She was taken from her home in Pakistan to serve 84-year-old Ilyas Ashar and his wife, Tallat. She was allegedly forced to sleep in a cellar while being repeatedly raped by Ashar.
She was also forced to carry out all the menial chores like cooking, cleaning, sewing, washing and ironing.
Ashar and his 67-year-old wife now face jail after being convicted of trafficking for exploitation and benefit fraud.
According to reports, the girl, now 20, talks about arriving in the UK on June 24, 2000. She was given free board and lodgings with the Ashars and was initially given gifts such as bracelets.
Then she began being given menial jobs and was often berated.
‘I was sad and weak because I was working so hard. I had to clean all the time and that was it – that was my life. I’d cook and clean for hours.’ - she recalled
Lights in the cellar would be flicked on and off when her captors needed her. ‘The lady got angry because I was making too much noise, but I wouldn’t know I was making noise.
‘I would be sitting in there crying for hours and hours, sitting alone.’
Shown a photo of Mr Ashar, the girl said: ‘The old man, he’s bad. He’s the one who has sex with me.’
Peter Cadwallader, prosecuting at the first trial, said the girl was also made to clean for friends and relations of the Ashars. He added: ‘She was physically abused, she was sexually abused and she was exploited economically. She had nowhere to go. Who could she have turned to? She knew nothing else.’
The Ashars illegally claimed housing benefit and income support using her name. They were arrested in June 2009 after police went to the house about a separate matter and found the girl in the cellar.
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