A vulnerable Pakistani bride was sexually abused, burned with an iron and attacked with a screwdriver by her father-in-law after her husband left her alone at the family home, a jury heard.

The young woman was ordered to do menial chores and care for children at the Bradford house after coming to the UK from her homeland four years ago, it is alleged.

She could not speak English and had no one to turn to when her father-in-law began a catalogue of abuse against her, prosecutor Richard Clews told Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

He is said to have watched pornography on his lap-top computer before molesting her.

The man, in his mid-fifties, denies 14 offences.

They include ten allegations of sexual assault, two of causing a person to engage in a sexual act without consent and two of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Mr Clews said that after “a short period of harmony” the woman’s husband began staying out at night and then was hardly at home at all.

It is alleged that her father-in-law began assaulting her in May last year when they were alone together in the house and the abuse continued until she learned enough English to dial 999 in August.

Mr Clews said the man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the woman, told her if she did as he asked, she would have a good home. Otherwise, he would get her divorced and possibly deported back to Pakistan.

“That would bring shame on her family and she was very anxious to avoid that,” Mr Clews told the court.

He said she was “at her wits’ end” when she called the police for help.

Officers took her from the house and she never returned, going to stay with friends in Lancashire.

Mr Clews said one of them took a photo on a mobile phone of a burn on her arm she alleges was caused by the man using an iron.

She also says he scratched her arm with a screwdriver.

Her father-in-law was said to have torn her dress and Mr Clews said the jury will see a garment “in a torn state”.

The defendant, who has diabetes, says none of the accusations are true.

The trial continues.