Couple kept deaf and mute 10-year-old girl in cellar as sex slave for a decade

A child from Pakistan was kept in a couple’s cellar for almost a decade and repeatedly raped.

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by Jessica Anais Rach |
Published on

Manchester Crown Court heard how the young girl- now thought to be 19- was trafficked to Britain so her captors could claim £30,000 in benefits.

The child entered the country in 2000 with a passport claiming that she was 20- a fact that immigration officials at Heathrow airport reportedly missed.

Over the course of 9 years, the deaf and mute girl was raped by 84-year-old Ilyas Asher and forced to work for his wife Tallat, 67, at their home in Eccles, Salford.

The cellar that the girl was held captive in
The cellar that the girl was held captive in

She was held captive in the cellar at the £300,000 house and forced to carry out all the menial chores for the Ashers and their friends, including cooking, cleaning, sewing, washing and ironing.

‘The old man, he’s bad. He’s the one who has sex with me.’

Her days were spent packing football shirts, clothes and mobile phone covers, while she had no contact with children her own age and was not allowed to attend school.

However the court heard that the girl was a ‘remarkably resilient young woman’.

The girl spent 49 days reliving her horrific experiences via video link in a private room in the courtroom.

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Speaking through a sign language interpreter and translator, the young woman revealed:

‘I was sad and weak because I was working so hard. I had to clean all the time and that was it – that was my life. I’d cook and clean for hours.’

Lights in the cellar would be flicked on and off when her captors needed her.

‘The lady got angry because I was making too much noise, but I wouldn’t know I was making noise.

The 300k house the girl was held captive in

‘I would be sitting in there crying for hours and hours, sitting alone.’

‘I was sad and weak because I was working so hard'

‘The old man, he’s bad. He’s the one who has sex with me.’

Police went to the house about a separate matter in 2009 and found the girl in the cellar.

The sign language she was taught by experts over months led to Asher’s conviction after she signed her evidence to a jury in a series of long court sittings.

Ilyas Asharwas was convicted of 13 counts of rape, and he and wife Tallat were convicted at an earlier trial of trafficking, exploitation and benefit fraud, while his daughter, Faaiza, 46, was also convicted of benefit fraud.

Sentencing takes place next week.

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