AN abusive husband assaulted his wife after his arranged marriage turned violent, a court heard.

Preston Crown Court heard how Khuram Shezad, 35, subjected his wife to four years of physical and mental abuse between 2016 and 2020.

Victoria Lewis, prosecuting, described how the arranged marriage was “never a happy one” with Shezad, of Burnaby Street, Bolton, telling his wife she was fat and ugly and mocking her for being short.

The couple had two children but Shezad told his wife she was a “bad mother” and accused her of having affairs with other men.

Ms Lewis said she became increasingly isolated with Shezad preventing her from seeing her family and by 2017 he began to become violent.

During one incident Ms Lewis described how Shezad’s wife was trying to park her car in the couple’s drive when he began shouting at her and grabbed her by the neck.

“On June 15, 2020, Shezad and his wife had an argument,” said Ms Lewis.

“He wanted her to call the housing association to get the gutters outside the house cleaned out.

“She told him he could phone them and he became angry at this saying he was not the type of man that listens to women and threatened her with divorce.”

Ms Lewis described how the argument escalated the next day when Shezad’s wife feared he would confiscate her passport.

“He became angry and smashed a plate and with one of the broken pieces started slashing her arms and legs with the shard,” said Ms Lewis.

“As a result she sustained several wounds and she went downstairs and phone the police.”

Shezad told officers he suffered from muscular dystrophy and would be unable to fight his wife.

In a victim personal statement read to the court by Ms Lewis, she said: “Since being married by physical and mental health has deteriorated and I have worried constantly about myself, my children and my elderly parents and what effect it would have on them if they knew what Khuram was really like and how he treats me.

"I do not deserve to be treated in such a degrading and contemptuous manner.”

Louise Cowan, defending, said Shezad, who pleaded guilty to assault on a person thereby occasioning them actual bodily harm and controlling and coercive behaviour in a relationship, was engaging well with his probation officer and confirmed he did suffer from muscular dystrophy, which would worsen and make him vulnerable to Covid-19 if he was imprisoned.

Passing sentence, Recorder Michael Blakey, said Shezad was a “bully who bullied his wife”.

“You did horrible things to her, said horrible things to her and there was absolutely no justification for that whatsoever,” said Recorder Blakey. “She was a vulnerable individual and you threatened to divorce her which in your culture brings shame on females - it was another mechanism you used to control her behaviour.

“Thankfully for her the relationship has now come to an end and she is no longer within your clutches.”

He handed Shezad an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for 20 months, and ordered him to complete 20 days of rehabilitation activities.