Man’s chilling rape and abuse charges - against his girlfriend

Reporter: DON FRAME
Date published: 22 April 2015


SICKENING pictures of injuries allegedly inflicted by a torturer and rapist on his own girlfriend were found stored on his phone by shocked police.

The graphic images stored on Iqbal Ali’s mobile helped prompted a major investigation that revealed the woman was one of four partners subjected to physical, psychological and sexual abuse for around 10 years, a trial jury heard.

When the four women were interviewed a chillingly similar picture emerged of a possessive and jealous sadist who liked to control his women in every possible way.

One said Ali (33), of Broadway, Chadderton, put a gun in her mouth and told her he would pull the trigger if she didn’t behave. Another said he threatened to hurt her family unless she did everything he asked. One woman said he punched her in the stomach and forced her to perform a sex act on him while she was pregnant. Another said he demanded a sex act in a public park to prove her love for him.

David Toal, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court his last victim, whose injuries he is said to have photographed, was so badly hurt she would have died had it not been for emergency surgery.

She was badly burned by scalding water, forced to place her hands on an oven ring turned full-on, and choked with a belt to the point of unconsciousness. On occasions she was forced to kneel in front of a mirror while he throttled her.

His control over the woman he first met in 2007 was such that she invented a story to explain near-fatal injuries. But doctors were so concerned they called police and she was taken to hospital.

A consultant at Wythenshawe Hospital found she had a throat perforation, a possible fracture of the larynx, and a potentially life-threatening chest infection, all believed to have been the result of attempted strangulation.

Abuse of his last victim included tying her naked to a wardrobe for hours and beating her if she made a sound, pouring scalding water over her, taking her wages to pay off his credit card debts and demanding she constantly texted him about her movements when she left the house.

When she worked at an Oldham school he insisted she attached headphones to her mobile so he could listen in to any conversations she had on the way to and from work.

Ali pleads not guilty to a total of 25 offences: 13 counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, four of rape, two of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent, two of indecent assault, two of common assault, and two of possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

Mr Toal said: “She suffered years of systematic physical and sexual abuse.”

The jury heard that some time into the relationship, the woman was told by Ali he already had a girlfriend and a young son and they were all moving in together.

The woman shared a mattress on the floor while the girlfriend had her own room. Ali is said to have told the “girlfriend” — another victim — the woman was a hired, live-in baby sitter.

The trial continues.