A man and his parents have been jailed after his wife was forced to take anti-diabetes medication and doused in a corrosive substance, leaving her in a persistent vegetative state from which she will never recover.
Ambreen Fatima Sheikh, described as “intelligent, bright, ambitious and happy-go-lucky”, was 30 when she was given the anti-diabetes drug glimepiride after being brought to the UK from Pakistan after an arranged marriage.
Leeds crown court heard that the drug left her with catastrophic brain injuries. Sheikh was also doused in a caustic substance, possibly a cleaning fluid, and was abused in the house in the days leading up to her admission to hospital on 1 August 2015.
Sheikh, who is now 39, has been left unaware of herself or her environment, is not motor or pain responsive, and will never medically recover, the court heard.
Her husband Asgar Sheikh, 31, and his parents Khalid Sheikh, 55, and Shabnam Sheikh, 53, have been jailed for seven years and nine months.
Asgar Sheikh’s brother, Sakalayne Sheikh, 25, was given a six-month sentence, suspended for two years, and his sister, Shagufa Sheikh, 29, was given an 18-month sentence, also suspended for two years.
DCI Matthew Holdsworth of West Yorkshire police said: “This has been an awful case in which a young, healthy woman has been catastrophically injured and robbed of her future by the very people she should have expected to protect her.
“While Ambreen still technically lives, it is tragically believed she may never regain consciousness.”
The court heard she survives by being fed through a tube and will die, though potentially not for many years, because of what happened to her.
Sheikh, who was in good health while living in Pakistan, came to Huddersfield in 2014 after an arranged marriage with Asgar in Pakistan, the courtroom heard.
The judge said that she did not leave the family’s Clara Street house often, and almost never unsupervised. She did not speak much English, have an independent income, or have many friends who lived in the UK.
The court heard the family were unsatisfied with her work in the house, and Khalid Sheikh had suggested she should be sent back to Pakistan.
The judge said she did not know who in the family administered the corrosive substance, which left severe burns on Sheikh’s lower back, bottom and right ear. She also did not know who “tricked or forced” her to take the glimepiride, which was prescribed to Shabnam Sheikh.
Glimepiride can be extremely dangerous for people who do not have diabetes, even if it is taken in small doses.
The judge concluded there was a two- to three-day gap between Sheikh falling unconscious and the family calling an ambulance, which would have exacerbated her brain injuries.
At the trial last year, Asgar, Khalid, Shabnam and Shagufa Sheikh were all found guilty of allowing a vulnerable adult to suffer physical harm.
Asgar, Shabnam and Shagufa Sheikh were also found guilty of an act intending to pervert the course of justice, and all five defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
The offence of allowing a vulnerable adult to suffer physical harm carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison at the time. However, this has since been increased to 14 years.
Even when the family called 999, they lied about what had happened to her. “You would all have been aware of her pain and distress,” the judge said. “It’s just not realistic to conclude that you did not all know of Ambreen’s predicament and her desperate need for emergency medical care.
“You all also knew why she was in that condition.”
