Yorkshire couple admit breaching forced marriage prevention order by travelling to Denmark to 'help' daughter

Kamran and Saiqa Rafiq, 61 and 52, claimed that they were worried for their adult daughter's welfare after seeing social media posts indicating she was 'drinking and taking drugs' in Denmark, where she had moved to work in a bar after the order was originally imposed by Bradford's family court in 2015.

In June 2019 the couple left their home on Wheatlands Drive near Bradford Royal Infirmary and went to Denmark, apparently with the intention of offering financial assistance via a third party.

Mr Rafiq's lawyer claimed that before leaving the UK, they attempted to contact their daughter via her solicitor, only to be told that the firm was no longer acting for her.

Interpreting the social media posts as her 'reaching out for help', they visited the bar where she worked at a time when she was not there in order to avoid direct contact.

However they were charged with harassment in a Danish court, but later acquitted.

At Bradford Crown Court on Friday, both Rafiqs, who have no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to breaching the order, which prohibited contact with their daughter and prevented them taking action to locate her, without reasonable excuse.

The court heard that they are unlikely to be jailed as they are the sole carers for their disabled son, but could be subject to a suspended sentence or a community order.

Mr Rafiq's lawyer added that her client believed he was acting 'with good reason and out of a desperation to help with the minimum possibility of upset' but agreed he now accepted his actions had fallen short of a reasonable excuse under the terms of the order.

Judge Colin Burn described the breach, which was their first, as 'not serious or persistent' and adjourned for sentencing on August 5.