The police watchdog has launched an investigation into the contact that officers had with a woman who was poisoned with prescription pills and doused with a corrosive substance by members of a family she had joined in an arranged marriage.
Ambreen Fatima Sheikh was left in a persistent vegetative state from which she will never recover. A judge at Leeds crown court last week sentenced five members of the same family for their part in bringing about Sheikh’s catastrophic injuries.
Described as “intelligent, bright, ambitious and happy-go-lucky”, Sheikh was 30 when she was “tricked or forced” into taking the diabetes drug glimepiride. She was also doused with a caustic substance, probably some kind of cleaning fluid.
She was admitted to hospital on 1 August 2015 where it was initially thought she would die. After her ventilator was turned off, she began to breathe for herself.
The court heard Sheikh had been brought to Huddersfield from Pakistan for an arranged marriage. There was evidence the family were unsatisfied with her work in the house and it was suggested she should be sent back to Pakistan.
Concerns were raised by members of Sheikh’s extended family and two police officers carried out a welfare check weeks before she was admitted to hospital. They reported her as appearing fit and well.
The judge, Mrs Justice Lambert, said she attached “little weight to that assessment” because Sheikh spoke little English and her father-in-law had been present during the visit.
On Thursday the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the watchdog for England and Wales, said that after comments made by the judge, West Yorkshire police had made a mandatory referral.
Emily Barry, the IOPC’s regional director, said: “Our thoughts are with Ms Sheikh and her loved ones, as well as all those affected by this deeply distressing incident. In light of the comments made during the recent court hearing, and the unimaginable suffering she has endured, it is only right that a thorough investigation takes place to understand the nature and extent of the police interaction with Ms Sheikh in July 2015.”
Barry said the watchdog would “consider whether there were any missed opportunities to safeguard her in the days and weeks before she was admitted to hospital”.
Sheikh, 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, 31, and his parents, Khalid, 55, and Shabnam, 53, were each jailed for seven years and nine months.
Asgar’s brother Sakalayne, 25, was given a six-month sentence, suspended for two years, and his sister Shagufa, 29, was given an 18-month sentence, also suspended for two years.
The judge said the victim had rarely left the house and never by herself. She had no independent income and no friends in the UK. None of the family gave evidence and the judge said she could not say for certain when the abuse had begun.
