A man who beat his wife with a cricket bat and forced her to drink bleach is to have his sentence reviewed.
Mustafa Bashir, 34, was given a suspended sentence at Manchester crown court in March after admitting assaulting his wife, Fakhara Karim, 33.
The judge in the trial, Richard Mansell QC, was heavily criticised by domestic abuse campaigners after he said Karim was not vulnerable because she was “an intelligent woman with a network of friends” and a university degree.
On Wednesday, Mansell ordered Bashir’s sentence to be reviewed at Manchester crown court on Friday because “further information relevant to the sentence has become available to the court”.
During the trial, Bashir’s lawyers told the judge that their client would lose an offer to be employed as a professional player by Leicestershire County Cricket Club if he were jailed. The club later contacted the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to deny any such offer had been made.
Wasim Khan, the chief executive of Leicestershire CCC, said Bashir’s claim was “deeply disturbing” for the club. “Leicestershire CCC are appalled that Bashir could have invented a job offer from the club in order, it would seem, to evade a prison sentence,” he said.
During the trial Bashir admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm, assault by beating, destroying or damaging property and using a destructive substance with intent to maim. He was given an 18-month prison term, suspended for two years.
Mansell also ordered Bashir to attend a workshop entitled “building better relationships”, pay £1,000 costs and banned him from contacting Karim.
Bashir met Karim in Pakistan and they married in 2013. The court heard he berated her for wearing western clothing, tried to turn her against her family, would call her a “slag” when she went out with her female friends and repeatedly beat her.
The court was told Bashir once struck Karim over her back with his cricket bat because he felt she spent too long talking to a friend on the phone, saying: “If I hit you with this bat with my full power then you would be dead.”
On another occasion Bashir, who plays in a local cricket league in Oldham, Greater Manchester, forced his wife to take tablets and drink bleach and told her to kill herself during a row over him going on a cricket tour to the Netherlands.
During sentencing, Mansell said he was “not convinced [Karim] was a vulnerable person”. He added: “Sometimes women who move here from their country become trapped in a relationship where they lose their support network of family and friends, and cannot speak the language.
“This is not the case here. She is plainly an intelligent woman with a network of friends and did go on to graduate from university with a 2:1 and a master’s – although this has had an ongoing effect on her.”
Sandra Horley, the chief executive of Refuge, said Mansell’s comments demonstrated a shocking ignorance around the impact of domestic violence on women. “What a woman does for a job, her level of education or the number of friends she has makes no difference,” she said. “For any woman, domestic violence is a devastating crime that has severe and long-lasting impacts.”
The crown court has the power to alter a sentence within 56 days of the date it was made, under the 56-day “slip rule”. The usual reason for altering a sentence under section 155 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 is that further relevant information has become available, the court has overlooked some statutory provisions limiting its powers or the sentence is found to take effect in an unexpected manner.
