Man who attacked his wife with a cricket bat has finally gone to prison

After previously avoiding jail due to his victim not being deemed “vulnerable” enough, Mustafa Bashir, 34, from Cheetham Hill has now been resentenced to eighteen months in prison after misleading the court.

Bashir originally escaped with a suspended sentence, a £1000 fine and an order to attend a workshop entitled “building better relationships”. However, his lawyer’s argument that Bashir should be spared prison due to his professional contract with Leicestershire County Cricket Club has since been found to be false after the LCCC intervened, stating that they had never contacted or ever spoken with Bashir, let alone promised him a contract.

On Wednesday, judge Richard Mansell QC ordered a review of Bashir’s sentence, stating that “further information relevant to the sentence has become available to the court”, resulting in a resentence of eighteen months in prison.

The LCCC said in a statement that “The club is deeply committed to the White Ribbon campaign set up to tackle domestic violence, so we were horrified at being used as a means for someone who had been convicted of appalling violence to his wife to escape imprisonment.”

Bashir originally pleaded guilty to charges of assault against his ex-wife, Fakhara Karim including striking her with a cricket bat and forcing her to drink bleach. Judge Richard Mansell QC came under heavy criticism from domestic violence campaigners after sparing Bashir prison due to Miss Karim’s university education and her supportive network of friends, suggesting she was not a vulnerable person. A petition was subsequently created, calling for domestic violence to be taken seriously in courts, gathering over 100,000 signatures.

Whilst the LCCC said that they were happy to have “played its part” in justice being done, Sandra Horley, chief executive of Refuge said the original sentence showed a disturbing level of ignorance about domestic violence:

“What a woman does for a job, her level of education or the number of friends she has makes no difference. For any woman, domestic violence is a devastating crime that has severe and long-lasting impacts.”