18:32 19 December 2014
A judge has banned a man in a polygamous Islamic marriage from having sex with his wife saying that ‘she is unable to give consent’.
Mr Justice Mostyn was asked to consider whether the 39-year-old woman, who has a mental age of between four and eight, should leave a care facility and return home.
The Bangladeshi husband, had wanted his wife of 18 years to go back home saying it was his right to have sex with her.
The judge, who said that polygamous marriage is not recognised in the UK, ruled that the woman did not have the mental capacity to “make the decision to have sex.”
The judge added that returning home would not be in her best interests saying she “has barely an inkling of the health risks involved” and “had virtually no idea how her babies came to be in her tummy (as she put it)”.
Her three children were taken into care. Mr Justice Mostyn said it was “heartless” of the husband to get her pregnant again knowing that the child would also be taken away at birth.