A man has been jailed for five years for raping his teenage bride who was trapped and unhappy in their arranged marriage.

Bradford Crown Court heard the girl was sent to Pakistan to marry her first cousin when she was 17.

She was unhappy from the start but relatives were determined to make the marriage work, prosecutor Caroline Wigin said.

In January, when the teenager was 19, her 25-year-old husband attacked her while relatives were downstairs at the family home.

Miss Wigin said the man, who pleaded guilty, raped her twice.

She ran naked from the room but relatives at the house did not want the attack reported.

The teenager barricaded herself in the bedroom with a wardrobe and the next day fled to her doctor covered in bruises.

Miss Wigin said the woman was isolated from her family and took refuge in a hostel. She wanted a divorce and her husband deported.

Abdul Iqbal, for the defendant who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he accepted his behaviour was abominable.

He understood the teenager was happy with the arranged marriage and came to the UK to work hard, live honourably and raise a family.

Mr Iqbal said: “He will serve a jail sentence and leave the country to let the complainant get on with her life.”

The man sat in the dock with head bowed, next to an interpreter. No family members were present.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said the woman, who lives in the Bradford area, was from an orthodox family with a tradition of marriage between cousins. She first met the defendant on her wedding day and the union was unhappy from the outset.

Judge Durham Hall said: “She had no wish, and clearly no love, for you and regretted it from the moment of her marriage.

“If you have any honour left in you, you will grant your wife a divorce.”