A British Pakistani couple from Nottingham have been convicted of child marriage offences after arranging nikah ceremonies for their two teenage sons in Pakistan. The boys were 17 at the time they were taken abroad.
Nottingham Crown Court gave the parents a two-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered each to complete 100 hours of unpaid community work. The sentence means they will avoid immediate custody provided they commit no further offences and comply with court conditions.
Prosecutors said the couple travelled to Pakistan with the specific purpose of finding marriage partners for their sons. One of the teenagers refused a proposed match; the other was married in a nikah ceremony. Police were alerted to the marriage following a referral from the teenager’s school, which triggered the investigation.
The parents initially denied arranging marriages, claiming the trip was a family visit or holiday and that any marriage discussions had come from one of the boys. They later pleaded guilty on February 17 to conduct intended to cause a child under 18 to enter into marriage.
Digital evidence reviewed by investigators contradicted their account. Messages on the father’s phone referred to searching for a rishta, or marriage proposal, and indicated he was in Pakistan looking for a wife for his son. The mother’s phone contained detailed messages about arrangements with the other family, contingency plans when a boy said he did not like a proposed match, video footage of the wedding ceremony, and records of money exchanged with the bride’s family.
Although the nikah would need to be conducted at a registered premises to count as a legal marriage under UK law, prosecutors obtained independent expert advice confirming that the ceremony was binding under Islamic and Pakistani law and imposed significant social and legal constraints on the teenage victim. The expert also confirmed that photographs provided showed a nikah took place.
England and Wales introduced an offence of child marriage when the minimum marriage age was raised to 18 in 2023. Prosecutors accepted that there was no evidence of force or undue coercion in this case and that the defendants said they were unaware of the change in law. However, investigators and the Crown Prosecution Service emphasized that taking children overseas to arrange marriages breaches the law and that ignorance of the legislation is not a defence.
The Crown Prosecution Service said child marriage laws exist to protect children from the lifelong harm of entering marriages at an early age, and that the law applies regardless of where the offending occurs. The parents were held to account on their return to the UK after the school referral prompted police and CPS action.
