They told me I was a servant, says arranged marriage Muslim bride 'beaten every day'

Zahida Khan told St Albans Crown Court her cousin Sania Bibi, 20, had described a range of incidents she suffered at the hands of her husband and mother-in-law.

Mrs Bibi was allegedly abused and treated like a slave after she arrived in Britain from Pakistan following the marriage in April 2006.

The husband: Haroon Akhtar yesterday

Today Zahida Khan told the jury of a series of incidents Sania had told her about after she fled to relatives in Blackburn early last year.

She said: "Sometimes when they would eat she wasn't offered any food, apparently because her background was very poor.

'Nobody acknowledged her, never spoke to her apart from telling her what to do.

'She said when she had finished (her daily tasks) and she had nothing else to do sometimes she would be upset that she missed her family or wanted to speak to her sister.

'Her mother-in-law would say, 'go up to your room'. She would take her up to her room and say 'cry in there'.'

Yesterday the court heard that Sania was constantly beaten and treated like a slave after arriving in Britain from Pakistan following an arranged marriage.

Her husband Haroon Akhtar, 28, of Paston Road, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, denies five counts of actual bodily harm and one of putting a person in fear of violence.

His father Ali Akhtar, 55, of the same address, denies theft of jewellery his daughter-in-law had been given at the wedding.

Mother-in-law Zafia Bibi, 49, denies theft and putting a person in fear of violence.

Ms Khan gave the descriptions based on notes made when Sania fled to Blackburn, read out by prosecutor George Heimler.

She said Haroon Akhtar told his bride to "get used" to crying and even made her clean windows outside in icy, cold weather.

She described an incident when Haroon had beaten his wife.

She said: 'He came into the bathroom, grabbed hold of Sania's hair, dragged her out and slapped her across the face then pushed her down the stairs, then followed her and pushed her face into the door then told her to get out.

Left: The mother-in-law Zafia Bibi. Right: The father-in-law Ali Akhtar 

'The mother-in-law was stood by and said, 'leave it yet, we have plenty of time for this'.

'That was the incident that happened when she had not cleaned the bath properly.

'That was significant because she was hurt quite badly then.'

She also described an incident where Zafia Bibi had blamed Sania for revealing a secret that led to her being slapped.

She added: 'The mother-in-law had gone to London for the day and she bought a chicken and cooked it.

'When the father-in-law came home he asked Sania, 'where has the chicken come from?'.

'She told him the mother-in-law had been to London and bought it from there.

'The father-in-law then slapped the mother-in-law. She was not supposed to go to London for some reason which Sania was not aware of.

'The mother-in-law then told Haroon that the father had slapped her for Sania because Sania had been stirring it, she had done something that she wasn't supposed to do.

'She had told the father-in-law where the chicken had come from but she didn't know that was supposed to be a secret.