A 28-year-old man sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for an attack on his estranged wife in a UK shopping centre car park has been handed an indefinite restraining order against contacting her and is set to be deported to India.
Varinder Singh was caught on CCTV from the Broadway shopping centre complex in Bradford, northern England, strangling his victim into a state of semi-consciousness before manhandling her into the back of his vehicle.
According to a local court report in the Telegraph & Argus’ newspaper, another clip from the car park exit then showed the victim managing to get out of the rear door of the vehicle before Singh deliberately drove at her.
The reality is that this was serious violence committed in the context of a relationship in which you sought to control and dominate your wife, Recorder Bryan Cox, presiding over a hearing at Bradford Crown Court this week, told Singh.
The CCTV shows you driving your motor car at your victim at some speed. You plainly intended to inflict serious injury. It is a matter of pure good fortune that you did not cause much greater physical injuries, the judge said.
As part of the sentence, Singh was also banned from driving for six years and told to take an extended retest. In her victim impact statement, Singh’s estranged wife described how she kept having flashbacks of the car running over me and said she had suffered an injury to her knee as a result of the impact. She said she was in fear because Singh had not been deterred by the fact they were in a public place.
This shows he is capable of anything and I’m not safe, said the wife, who has not been named in the case. The court heard that the married couple had been separated but agreed to meet up to discuss the formalities of their divorce.
The court report notes that Singh initially answered no comment during his police interview after being arrested, but subsequently pleaded to charges of attempted grievous bodily harm with intent, kidnap, and assault in relation to the incident in August. He also admitted a further assault and a criminal damage charge dating back to November last year.
Singh’s barrister, Ayman Khokhar, told the court his client had difficulty handling the breakdown of the marriage.
He appreciates it is a matter of good fortune that his emotional meltdown in that car park did not result in more serious consequences for the complainant, said Khokhar.
He noted that while Singh had wanted to return to his family in India, he would now face deportation following the prison sentence.
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