BRADFORD MAN JAILED FOR ASSAULT THAT CAUSED UNBORN BABY'S DEATH
A Bradford man whose pregnant wife lost their unborn child after he assaulted her in a locked bedroom has been jailed for more than four years.Tahir Akbar, 33, attacked the woman during a row at their home over food, subjecting her to a shocking assault.
Bradford Crown Court heard on Tuesday how Akbar slapped the woman's face, threw his food on the floor and made her clean it up before pushing her back onto the bed.
Prosecutor Kitty Colley told the court that Akbar put his knee against the woman’s stomach resulting in a condition called a placental abruption.
Despite her being distressed, Akbar continued his assault by hitting her over the head with her mobile phone and even turned up the volume of the television to drown out her cries for help.
The court heard that the woman, who was 20 weeks pregnant, then realised her waters had broken, but when she asked to be let out of the room, Akbar accused her of being “a drama queen”.
Other members of Akbar’s family eventually persuaded him to unlock the door, but even after his wife was taken away from the house on Bolingbroke Street, he pestered her with dozens of calls and messages telling her to lie about what had happened.
Akbar told her to say she had fallen in the kitchen at another property and hit her head on the corner of a table.
He then said he was sorry and pleaded with the victim in the messages: “No cops please.
I’ll go to prison.” At one point during the assault, Akbar was said to have told the woman: “What’s the worst that is going to happen?
Your baby will die.
Let it die.” Recorder Craig Hassall KC highlighted comments like that alongside Akbar’s expressions of remorse for the offending.
He also highlighted previous incidents when Akbar pushed the complainant out of a stationary car during a row about fish and chips and had also slapped the victim a few days before the assault.
The judge told Akbar: “As your wife, she was entitled to be, if not protected by you, at least safe from your childish and petty temper tantrums.” The victim underwent a scan at hospital, which revealed that there was no fluid around the baby, meaning it could not grow, and the baby was stillborn a few days after the assault.
Akbar, who had previous convictions for offences involving a former partner, pleaded guilty to charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm and doing acts tending or intended to pervert the course of public justice.
His barrister expressed remorse and shame, and Recorder Hassall sentenced him to 39 months for grievous bodily harm and an additional 12 months for perverting the course of justice.
