A HIGH Court judge denounced forced marriage yesterday as an “abomination”, as he annulled the wedding of an English-born teenager to her Pakistani cousin.

Mr Justice Munby described forced marriage as “intolerable” and a “gross abuse of human rights”.

He said: “Forced marriages, whatever the social or cultural imperatives that may be said to justify what remains a distressingly widespread practice, are rightly considered to be as much beyond the pale as such barbarous practices as female genital mutilation and so called ‘honour killings’.”

The judge granted the woman, now 20, a decree nisi of nullity after being told that her parents had lured her to Pakistan with the false promise of a holiday when she finished her exams.

Her “husband” admitted that the marriage was a ploy for him to enter Britain.

The girl, from Peterborough, was subjected to moral blackmail by her parents who said they would kill themselves if she did not marry the cousin she had never met.

The judge told the High Court in London: “She was kept in a remote part of Pakistan for many months and, despite begging her parents to be allowed to return to this country, she was subjected to unrelenting pressure, initially from her mother and subsequently by her father, as also from other members of the wider family.”

The girl, known only as NS, was not subjected to physical violence but her passport was taken from her and she was told that she would not return to England until she went through with the marriage.

“She was subject to continued emotional pressure and moral blackmail, applied over many months,” the judge said. “Her will was overborne.” The girl finally married her cousin, the son of her mother’s brother, named only as MI, in 2003 when she was 17.

The judge said: “Her lips may have spoken, but not her mind. In my judgment she is not bound by the ceremony. She did not validly consent. She is entitled to the decree nisi of nullity which she seeks.”

The woman lived with her husband for a short period before returning to England with her parents. The marriage was never consummated and he admitted to her that it was just a “ploy” to allow him to enter Britain.

Although the nullity proceedings had been translated into Urdu and sent to him in Pakistan he took no steps to defend them. The judge said that while arranged marriages were perfectly lawful, forced marriages were utterly unacceptable.

“Forced marriage is a gross abuse of human rights. It is a form of domestic violence that dehumanises people by denying them their right to choose how to live their lives. It is an appalling practice”. He added: “No social or cultural imperative can extenuate and no pretended recourse to religious belief can possibly justify forced marriage. Forced marriage is intolerable. It is an abomination.”

The woman has had no contact with her “husband” since returning to England with her mother in March 2004 and is now taking steps in Pakistan for an Islamic divorce.

She was educated in England and lives with members of her extended family but does not work. Her solicitor highlighted the difficulties the woman faced in tackling the situation.

Anne-Marie Hutchinson also disclosed the deception often involved. She said that the woman had contacted her via a friend who Ms Hutchinson had previouly helped.

“I had to meet her in a Jobcentre to get instructions on the case because there was no other way to meet her. I, a white middle-class lawyer could not go to her home to meet her,” she said.

The woman is still living with her brothers who, Ms Hutchinson said, were in control. “She is cowed by her parents. She has to be terribly careful,” the solicitor said.

She said the only way she could contact the girl was through sending text messages via three intermediaries.

An estimated 300 young British women and men are thought to be forced into marriage each year but campaign groups believe this figure is a gross underestimate of the problem.

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