MPs say wife-beater deserved jail

TWO MPs ARE calling for a review of the light sentence given to a man who beat his wife with a cricket bat and forced bleach into her mouth.

Manchester resident Mustafa Bashir, 34, admitted two counts of occasioning Actual Bodily Harm at Manchester Crown Court. He received an 18 month jail sentence which was suspended for two years. The Judge justified suspending the prison sentence on the basis that his wife was not vulnerable because she was an intelligent woman who had a university degree and she also had a network of friends. He acknowledged that the attacks had not only hurt her physically but had also left her finding it difficult to trust people. Bashir was also sentenced to attend a workshop on “Building better relationships” andpay £1,000 costs. He was banned from contacting his former wife.

Two MPs, Labour’s Jess Phillips and Tory Maria Miller, have announced that they will write to the Attorney General to question the lenient sentence. Ms Phillips said that the sentence sent out a dangerous message to violent and potentially violent husbands and boyfriends, and she stressed that domestic violence affected women of all classes and degrees of confidence. Ms Miller said that judges should understand that a brutal attack would cause suffering to the victim and sentencing should reflect this.

The woman Bashir attacked, who is now his ex-wife, said that she was disappointed by the sentence.  She told the BBC that the attack had caused her to suffer and if she appeared strong now, it was because she had gained strength from refusing to submit to being attacked.

Legal options may not yet be exhausted. The case cannot be referred to the Court of Appeal for consideration of a lenient sentence. However, the Judge may re-call the case to court within 56 days of sentencing if he believes the facts which led to the sentence need to be reconsidered. In his defence, Bashir claimed that he would have lost a contract with Leicestershire County Cricket Club – but the Club has denied that he had a contract with them, which may yet lead to Bashir facing charges of perjury.

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