Pakistani asylum seeker jailed for attacking British wife

A Pakistani asylum seeker has been jailed for 15 months by a UK court after he pleaded guilty to attacking his British wife whom he married to strengthen his case for a visa.
Mohsin Akram had met his future wife on social media and they got married so his case to stay in the UK could be strengthened, Cardiff Crown Court was told last week.
The 21-year-old soon turned violent, including beating Mariam Hussain with a hammer for forgetting to cook his dinner.
Hussain also told the court that she was held prisoner in her own home and banned from having a mobile phone or using the internet after her marriage.

"After we got married in February 2015, that is when the real abusive relationship started," the 20-year-old victim told the court.
Akram had arrived in Britain from Pakistan claiming to be in fear for his life because his brother had destroyed a copy of the Quran when he burned down the family home in Lahore.

Hussain said she met Akram on Facebook in August 2013 and that he had put pressure on her to marry him 18 months later to strengthen his claim for seeking asylum in the UK at a tribunal hearing.
Sentencing Akram, Judge Tom Crowther said: "It seems to me you wanted not a real person but some imaginary figure who not only would bear your children but would constantly dote on you."

Despite the sentence, the judge chose not to exercise deportation powers and send Akram back to Pakistan.
Hussain is now calling on the UK Home Office to review his asylum status once he is released from prison.
"The judge could have said he is to be deported but didn't. There are so many reasons why he should be deported," she said.
Akram had been convicted of assault in 2015 after a previous attack on Hussain but the couple had reconciled after that. They have a child, four months old at the time of the most recent attack in December 2016.