Teenage bride murdered by arranged husband was 'kicked, stamped on or punched'

A young woman who was beaten to death by her husband suffered multiple injuries to her ribs which were probably caused by "hard kicks, stamps or very hard punches", a pathologist told a jury today.

Professor Archibald Malcolm was giving evidence at the trial of four relatives of Shazad Khan, 25, who was found guilty last year of murdering his new wife, 19-year-old Sabia Rani, at the home where they all lived in Leeds.

Khan's mother Phullan Bibi, 52, two of his sisters, Uzma Khan, 23, and 28-year-old Nazia Naureen, and Naureen's husband Majid Hussain, also 28, are accused of failing to do anything to help Ms Rani.

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Beaten to death: Sabia Rani was repeatedly attacked by Shazad Khan (right)

Today Prof Malcolm, who is a leading expert on bone fractures, took a jury at Leeds Crown Court through the many fractures which were found on Ms Rani's ribs, which were at various states of healing.

Asked how the injuries were most likely caused, the pathologist said: "I think these rib fractures are most likely caused by very hard blows to the chest.

"These hard blows were likely to be hard kicks, stamps or very strong punches."

The professor told the jury he could not exclude the possibility that each of the many breaks could have been caused by Ms Rani falling on to a hard surface with a sharp edge, such as a low table.

But he said this would have had to be done on a number of occasions.

Asked what his analysis could tell him about the number of "episodes" of fracturing, he said: "I believe there are three episodes of trauma here.

"One around about three weeks prior to death, one about two weeks prior to death and a further episode of trauma 12 hours or less prior to death."

The jury has heard Ms Rani suffered injuries similar in severity to those suffered by someone in a serious road accident.

She had bruising to 90 per cent of her body.

Yesterday, Simon Myerson QC, prosecuting, told the court that medical evidence showed Ms Rani must have been in severe pain and very ill in the weeks before her death.

But Mr Myerson said the four defendants, who all lived in the same house in Oakwood Grange, Roundhay, in Leeds, did not help her.

Instead, he told the jury, some later blamed her injuries on evil spirits and curses.

Mr Myerson told the jury that Ms Rani had been brought up in rural Pakistan and did not speak English.

She came to England only five months before she died and was not allowed out of the house without a member of her husband's family.

All four defendants deny a charge of allowing the death of a vulnerable adult. Khan and Hussain also deny committing perjury at the murder trial last year.

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