 A 19-year-old woman was diagnosed as being under the influence of an evil spirit in the week before she died at the home of the Leeds family into which she had married, a jury heard.
A "holy man" in Bradford did not meet the girl but told her in-laws about her "problem" after performing a ceremony involving a top she wore, the jury at Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday.
Sabia Rani, from Pakistani Kashmir, moved to Leeds in December 2005, to live with the husband she had contracted to marry at the tender age of 15. They went through a ceremony in Palakh, Kashmir, and another in Leeds. But within five months, the bride was dead in the bathroom of her new home in Oakwood Grange, Roundhay, Leeds.
Oops.
Simon Myerson QC, prosecuting for the Crown, told the court earlier that doctors believed her body had simply given up under the stress of 11 rib fractures and massive bruising, which must have been inflicted at her home because she never went out.
That's very unexpected, isn't it?
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Her widowed husband, Shazad Khan, now 25, has pleaded not guilty to murder. At the time of her death the couple shared the house with his parents, one of his brothers, two sisters, a nephew and a brother-in-law.
 The brother, Mohammed Azad Khan, 18, under questioning on the third day of the trial from James Goss QC, for the defence, spoke about visiting the unnamed "holy man" with his mother.
They had been there for guidance before, because the family was concerned that he had dropped out of college and started smoking. Mr Khan said the holy man's guidance had helped him straighten himself out.
On this occasion, his mother had taken garments belonging to him, to her and to his new sister-in-law. Answering Mr Goss's questions, Mr Khan said he knew nothing about any family gossip that Sabia had been seen reading the Koran upside down. But he agreed the holy man was asked to "read" her garment along with one of his and one of his mother's.
| "He measured them, tied knots in them, read some holy script, blew on the garments and then untied them and measured them again. Sabia's had got bigger and he said there was something on her...an evil spirit or evil force." |
Mr Khan said: "He measured them, tied knots in them, read some holy script, blew on the garments and then untied them and measured them again. There was nothing about mine. My mother's had got shorter and he said that was because she had been ill. Sabia's had got bigger and he said there was something on her...an evil spirit or evil force.
Well, if that doesn't convince you, then nothing wil, by Gum!
"He wrote down a manuscript which we had to hang outside the house, so it blew in the wind, to ward off the evil spirit."
They were told not to tell Sabia anything before they had seen the holy man again the following week, but Sabia died on Sunday, May 21, last year.
Mr Khan said as soon as he realised Sabia had died, "all that was the first thing that came into my head". He told Mr Goss: "I do believe in evil spirits and black magic and the power of prayer and all that."
Asked who else in the family had similar beliefs, he said: "Everybody.".
"We've all been assimilated into the Hive."
Outlining the prosecution case on the opening day of the trial, Mr Myerson mentioned a police report that the accused husband had suggested his wife was "possessed" because she had been starting physical fights with him right up until she died, despite medical opinion that she must have been crippled by her injuries.
"Who are you gonna believe, me, or your own lying eyes?"
Yesterday, his brother said he had never seen any sign that Sabia was injured. The jury heard about statements in which Shazad Khan allegedly admitted striking and kicking his wife in self-defence after she started attacking him because she was angry that he had a day job, a night job and a weekend job. He told the police he was hoping for a full-time contract from one of the jobs and could not afford time off meanwhile but his new bride, who spoke no English, did not understand.
The police say he told them about a violent struggle on the night before the death. But his lawyer, Mr Goss, has said the last physical fight the couple had was on the Friday. They had only quarrelled on the Saturday, he said. The hearing continues. 
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