Deaf sex slave case described accused as 'very bad old man'

A woman claims she was imprisoned in a cellar and used as a domestic servant writes Paul Britton for Salford Advertiser (24/02/12).

The woman, who is deaf and cannot speak, told police that she had sex with Ilyas Ashar ‘many, many times’. A jury, who have now watched recordings of all 14 of her interviews, have been told that she was trafficked into Britain from Pakistan at the age of between 10 and 12 in 2000 by Ilyas Ashar, 83, and his wife Tallat Ashar, 66. It is also alleged she was beaten, raped and sexually assaulted.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was interviewed by police through a sign language expert.

She told officers in an interview: “He is a very bad old man. Why would he want to have sex with me? He has got a wife. I was only little. I was very young. He is an old man.”

It is alleged the woman was locked in a cellar as a child at Ilyas and Tallat Ashar’s home on Cromwell Road, in Eccles, Salford, and was made to work, cook and clean for no money.
The jury has been told that she was forced to sleep on the cellar floor without toilet or washing facilities.The couple are on trial at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court and deny all the charges that they face.

The woman told police that she had sex with Ilyas Ashar at the house, in the cellar and the bedroom.
She also claimed that sex happened at other houses.
She said: “It was many, many times. Then one day I was talking to the old lady [Tallat Ashar]. I said that the old man [Ilyas Ashar] was having sex with me and the old lady was shocked about it.”

The woman said that Tallat Ashar hit her on being told of the alleged sex. She claimed the sex stopped after she told Tallat Ashar. Earlier, the jury was told that the woman was made to sweep up leaves outside the couple’s home, do housework at other people’s homes and lift heavy boxes containing football shirts and mobile phone covers that she packed in the cellar. She also cleaned houses in Pakistan, the court heard.

The woman, who was found by police at the house in 2009, said she received no payment from the Ashars. She is now due to give evidence to the court in person through a signer over a videolink.
Ilyas Ashar denies charges of false imprisonment, human trafficking and 12 counts of rape.
Tallat Ashar denies charges of false imprisonment, trafficking, sexual assault and unlawful wounding.
The couple, and their daughter Faaiza Ashar, 44, also deny benefit fraud charges.