A cruel family who left an arranged marriage bride in a vegetative state by ‘dousing her with chemicals’ and ‘force-feeding her pills’ have been jailed.
Ambreen Fatima Sheikh had been left in a vegetative state after she fell unconscious nine years in July 2015 at the Sheik family home in Leeds.
Asgar Sheikh, 30, her husband, failed to call an ambulance for his wife for three days after it was said she was effectively ‘tortured’ and it is feared she was doused in chemicals while locked away at the family home.
The Sheikh family had lived in their four-bedroom house in Huddersfield for decades, although neighbours describe how they rarely spoke to others.
Ambreen was flown to Britain from Pakistan after having an arranged marriage to Asgar Sheikh, now 31, in 2013.
Husband Asgar Sheikh pictured at Leeds Crown Court
Shakalayne Sheilkh has been handed a sentence of six months suspended for two years
Shabnam Sheikh has been jailed for seven years and nine months
Shagufa Sheikh has been handed a sentence of 18 months, suspended for two years
Khalid Sheikh has been jailed for seven years and nine months
The details of the abuse she suffered remain uncertain, however a court previously heard that Ambreen may have been the victim of a possible ‘torture’ with a chemical substance, and there may have also been an attempt to kill her with a dangerous drug.
The court heard the probable explanation for the 38-year-old’s condition was that she had unwillingly swallowed tablets prescribed to her diabetic mother-in-law that resulted in a hypoglycaemic attack.
Such tablets are extremely dangerous if taken by non-diabetics and have been dubbed ‘one pill killers’ to small children.
The prosecution said that the tablets were not taken voluntarily and by then the socially isolated and vulnerable Ambreen had suffered a ‘pattern of violence’ behind the closed doors of the terraced house in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire that she shared with her husband, parents-in-law and brother and sister-in-law.