"The defendants had spent the best part of 12 months trying to crush her will, realised they were not going to succeed and finally killed her because she had dishonoured the family and brought shame on them." In the year before she died, the prosecution said, her parents "embarked on a campaign of domestic violence and abuse directed at her and designed to force her to conform so that she behaved in a way that was expected". She ran away from home in 2002 and early 2003, but always returned. Her parents controlled her so she didn't have freedom of movement, the court heard. In particular, like most 16- or 17-year-old girls, she wanted boyfriends, Edis said, which caused intense pressure on the family. Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC told the jury on Monday morning that her parents had standards that she was "reluctant to follow". Shafilea's badly decomposed remains were discovered by workmen in Sedgwick, Cumbria, five months after she disappeared in February 2004, the jury was told.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |