Pakistani Muslim already convicted of trafficking and exploiting a 10-year-old deaf and mute orphan, has now also been found guilty of sex slavery and rape

For more than a decade, Ilyas Ashar sexually abused his vulnerable young deaf and mute victim, an orphan from Pakistan, beating her to force her to work for the family as a domestic servant. Ashar also used the girl to steal more than £30,000 in benefits on her behalf.

Ilyas and Tallat Ashar

SKY  (h/t Maria J) The youngster was taught enough sign language by the family so she could agree to the benefit money being handed over to the Ashars. She was first brought into the UK in June 2000 when aged around 10, though her exact age is not known.

For almost a decade the girl, now aged 19 or 20, had to work and sleep in the cellar at the family’s substantial home in Cromwell Road, Eccles in Salford. Ashar, 84, and his wife, Tallat Ashar, 68, had been convicted at an earlier trial of two counts of trafficking a person into the UK for exploitation, two counts of furnishing false information to obtain a benefit and one of permitting furnishing of false information to obtain a benefit.

Tallat Ashar displays her Muslim outrage

His daughter, Faaiza Ashar, 46, was found guilty at an earlier trial of two counts of furnishing false information to obtain a benefit, and one count of permitting furnishing of false information to obtain a benefit.

All three were convicted at the earlier trial where the jury were unable to reach verdicts on the allegations of rape so Ashar was re-tried. Reporting on the second trial was banned until the verdicts on the rape charges were in.

The jury were not told about the guilty verdicts at the earlier trial, where the court heard the girl was made to cook, clean, do the washing and ironing for the Ashars and clean the houses and cars of their family and friends. The girl had no family or friends in the UK and had never been to school in Pakistan or Britain.

She could not read or write and the only people she knew in Britain were the Ashars, who told her both her parents were dead. She was, however, taught to write her signature – so her name could be used to claim benefits. 

Ashar’s lawyer asked for bail to be continued but the judge refused. He was remanded into custody to be sentenced next week along with his wife and daughter, who sat in the public gallery grim-faced. ”At no stage have the defendants shown any remorse, or admitted to what they did to a girl, who was only as young as 10 years old when this began.”