Dad tried to kidnap daughter who refused to return home over marriage fear

Amjid Hussain had ordered his daughter to return home to Birmingham after she graduated from Falmouth University in Cornwall. The art student had broken off contact with him and was refusing to answer a stream of calls and texts because she feared he planned to force her into an arranged marriage with a cousin in Pakistan.

But the 51-year-old tricked her by setting up a meeting with a client who had commissioned drawings from her and arranged to pick them up outside a hotel in Falmouth, on August 1 last year.

She arrived to find her father and two relatives getting out of a car. He grabbed her and tried to force her into the vehicle, but she broke free and asked a passing stranger for help.

During the struggle Hussain told the passer-by, who was able to take to safety inside the hotel, that his daughter was being ‘naughty and stupid’. The police was called, the defendant fled and was arrested the next day.

In her victim impact statement the woman said she was frightened her family would try to kidnap her again. She said she wanted nothing to do with her father, who spoke almost no English.

Hussain, of Brookhill Road, Alum Rock, Birmingham, was jailed for 11 months suspended for two years after admitting offences of attempted kidnap and theft of his daughter’s phone at Exeter Crown Court.

He must carry out 20 rehabilitation activity days and was made subject to a permanent restraining order banning him from contacting the victim in any way and made subject to an electronic tag for six months.

Judge Anna Richardson said she was taking into account that Hussain has already spent six months in custody in her decision to suspend the sentence.

The judge told Hussain: “She is your only child and you should be enormously proud of her. She has attended university, graduated, and has talent as an artist and has shown enterprise in setting up a business.

“Unfortunately, that is not your perception. You wanted to control her and dictate her future life. She said the two of you had never understood each other. Your relationship was confrontational.

“She did not want to return home for fear of being sent to Pakistan to be married. Your daughter is an adult who is entitled to make her own decisions about her future. She is entitled to her autonomy. It is such a tragedy you cannot simply be proud of her.

“This offence is aggravated by the significant planning, that you involved others and because this was honour-based offending. You took her phone in an attempt to control her and prevent her contacting the police.”