Black Country parents in court for beating 12 year-old daughter

Apr 19 2009

A MUSLIM couple have been convicted of beating their 12 year-old daughter after claiming that it is normal in their native Pakistan.

The 37 year-old man and 34 year-old woman, who cannot be named to protect their victim’s identity, pleaded guilty to child cruelty at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Wednesday.

The couple admitted beating their daughter over a four-year period.

But they claimed beating children was part of their culture and that they had NOT acted out of malice.

In Pakistan violence against children is a major problem, according to UNICEF and the charity Save the Children. Corporal punishment is often regarded as a culturally acceptable way of disciplining and changing the behaviour of youngsters.

The court heard the girl’s father and her stepmum began caring for her full-time after she came from Pakistan to live at their Black Country home several years ago.

The physical abuse took place between December 31, 2003 and July 2, 2008.

In a prepared statement from the couple submitted to the court after they changed their plea to guilty on the day of trial, the husband said: “My wife and I are both from Pakistan. We come from a different culture where it is far more acceptable to beat children than it is here.

‘‘It was not done in a malicious way but in the best interests of the child.”