Family members of a teenager who was killed following years of abuse from her own family, have been convicted for a total of 56 years for the crime. Shahena Uddin, 19, was found dead in the bathroom in her home in Watford in October last year after she was brutally beaten with fists and weapons.
Her family called an ambulance after they discovered her the next morning and told paramedics she collapsed as she had not felt well. Severe bruising on several parts of Uddin's body was noticed, and the police was called. During trial, the court heard that the victim suffered severe mental and physical abuse at the hands of her family. Detective Inspector Fraser Wylie from the Bedforshire, Cambridgshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit said, "In all my years as a detective, this case has been possibly one of the most harrowing cases of domestic abuse I have dealt with. How any person can inflict such violence and mental abuse on someone is beyond comprehension, and even more so when those inflicting that abuse are members of a family who were supposed to have a duty of care."
Her sister-in-law Salma Begum, 33, was convicted of murder and conspiracy to pervert the course, and sentenced to life imprisonment, to serve a minimum of 18 years. Her husband, and the victim's brother, Suhail Uddin, 35, was convicted for 10 years. Rehene Uddin, 22, Jhuhal Uddin, 33, Tohel Uddin, 24, and Jewel Uddin, 27, were each sentenced to 5, 9, and six and a half, and 8 years respectively.
Wylie informed, "Shahena Uddin suffered unimaginable abuse both physically and mentally which was tantamount to torture. What she was subjected to, being denied water, being made to drink toilet water, and being forced to eat her own faeces, are just a few of the extremely disturbing 'punishments' her family inflicted on her, isolating her and making her life agony." Shahena was so brutally beaten the night she died, that the neighbours thought her family was "tenderising meat".
It also emerged that the teenager had written begging letters to her sister-in-law, asking to be allowed to leave the family home. In one such letter, she drew a heart captioned 'before' and a broker heart with the word 'after. Addressing herself as 'Shina', she wrote, "Shina is bad and does not deserve to live in this bad world. Shina RUINED everyone's life and happiness. I don't know how this all happened in a few hours. RUINED EVERYTHING. RUINED EVERYONE'S HAPPINESS. UPSET EVERYONE. WHY?"
In another letter, addressing Salma as 'Afa', she wrote, "It hurts when you call me a cow and a rat-dog. I am suffering. I have no one to tell so please can you help me. Afa, I will put my head in the toilet for you just to forgive me. Please Afa I really need you."
The police, after the conclusion of the case, admitted that they were unable to find a motive for the prolonged abuse. One official said the "troubled" family was "held together by control and internal discipline of an extreme variety."
