I just picked this story up via Not a Sheep. Spotted it in our sidebar.
The BBC takes an interest in domestic violence; it’s the kind of story that’s often featured in the Victoria Derbyshire show. Maybe it already has been.
The BBC chose to focus its report on a domestic abuse charity’s criticism of the leniency of the sentence. (18 months’ suspended) The charity said that the judge’s comments showed “Shocking ignorance”.
The BBC’s report describes the violence in some detail, but omits certain odious remarks Mustafa Bashir had made to his wife. According to the Express he berated her for wearing western-style clothing, called her a slag and her friends “English slags”.
I presume the BBC felt it was preemptively heading off a potential Islamophobic backlash, in the name of social cohesion.
However, it emerges that the judge’s principal reason for dishing out such a lenient sentence doesn’t apply. Mr Bashir lied. The cricket club that had supposedly offered him a professional contract has ‘never even ‘eard of him’.
