But within six months of flying from Pakistan to Leeds she was dead, aged 19, at the hands of the man to whom she was promised at the age of 15.

Ms Rani, who grew up in Palakh, in Kashmir, and left school at 13 to help with cooking, cleaning and raising her siblings, had been due to marry Shazan Khan since December 2002, when she was 15 and he was 21.

The pair, who were first cousins, met when Khan visited Pakistan for a family funeral in December 2002 but it was not until December 2005 that she arrived in the UK.

Five months later she was found dead at the home they shared in Oakwood, Leeds. She had five rib fractures on one side and six on the other and would have been in constant pain and ill for at least three weeks before she died.

A pathologist said the injuries were the worst he had seen in a 16-year career.

The broken ribs were consistent with kicks, stamps or hard punches and would have left her in severe pain, but the only medication she appeared to have taken was paracetamol and codeine.

Khan, a fitness fanatic who held down three jobs, admitted hitting her but claimed she must have been "possessed".

At his murder trial, the jury heard that Khan quickly regretted his decision to marry and found his new bride lacked domestic skills.

Ms Rani found herself living with several members of her husband's family and she rarely saw him because he worked long hours in his three jobs.

Khan told detectives that she struggled with tasks such as applying make-up and visiting the supermarket and this had irritated him. He told a work colleague that he was unhappy because he had been rushed into the marriage.

The beatings he meted out left her with injuries similar to those suffered by a car crash victims, the court heard.

In his defence, Khan claimed that he was frightened of his young wife by the end of their five month marriage.

The lanky computer expert, who liked to work out in his garage, claimed his wife would assault him regularly when they were alone and he would kick and punch her to get her off him.

Khan claimed that the "well-mannered respectable girl" he wed had changed and he was frightened that she was possessed in the way he had seen in the film The Exorcist.

He told police: "I had the idea there was something else controlling her. I didn't want to get close to her. Maybe some supernatural power would basically kill me. I was very scared."

The prosecution said Khan had told a string of lies about the circumstances of his wife's death.

Following Khan's conviction by a jury for murder, a second trial was told that four family members turned a blind eye to Khan's domestic violence.

The prosecution described Ms Rani as a vulnerable woman because she spoke limited English, was unsophisticated, had been in the country only a few months and had little contact outside Khan's family.

In the final three weeks of her life, her awful injuries would have been obvious to anyone who saw her regularly.

Shortly before she died, Ms Rani would only have been able to crawl a short distance and would not have been able to fight back or defend herself.

Those who could have saved her life chose instead to remain silent. The court heard she had probably been killed downstairs and carried upstairs by Khan and placed in the bath, probably after her clothes were changed.