Associated Press reports a story you probably won't see on Entertainment Tonight. After a July attack, the Muslim brother of a Harry Potter movie actress admitted his violent behavior:
LONDON – The brother of an actress who appeared in the Harry Potter movies has pleaded guilty to assaulting her, allegedly after she met a man who was not Muslim.The 22-year-old Afshan Azad plays Padma Patil, a classmate of the teenage wizard, in the movie series.
Prosecutor Richard Vardon told Manchester Crown Court that Azad's elder brother, 28-year-old Ashraf, assaulted her apparently over her association with a Hindu man. She fled her home after her brother and father threatened to kill her, Vardon said.
Ashraf Azad pleaded guilty for assault and was granted bailed on condition he not contact his sister. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 21. A judge ruled both men were not guilty of threatening to kill the actress.
The London Daily Mail offered this account:
Afshan Azad, 22, who appeared in the blockbuster movies as Padma Patil, was attacked and branded a ‘slag’ when Muslim relatives found out about her boyfriend.
The actress was so scared that she escaped out of her bedroom window and later fled her home city.
Police were called and her father, Abul Azad, 54, and brother, Ashraf, 28, were arrested and charged with making threats to kill her. The actress’s brother was also charged with assault.
But Miss Azad refused to testify and yesterday failed to turn up at their trial at Manchester Crown Court.
Instead Crown prosecutors decided to accept a guilty plea to assault by her brother while both men were formally found not guilty of making threats to kill.
Her father accepted to be bound over for £500 to keep the peace for 12 months....
[Prosecutor Richard] Vardon said Abul Azad had been woken up by his son, Ashraf, shouting: ‘Sort out your daughter! She’s a slag.’
He went on: ‘He continued to further assault her, shouting, “Just kill her!”’
Reading from the victim’s statement, the prosecutor added: ‘My father began saying he would do it, a reference to kill her, as he did not want his sons to have her blood on their hands and he would do time for it. Then she began to feel very scared.’
Her father was said to have threatened to take her to Bangladesh and force her into an arranged marriage.
Miss Azad called the police but after making her statement, made it clear she did not want to take further action.
She fled to London and later claimed she could not understand her father’s heavy Bengali accent and may have misheard what he said.
The actress later gave a statement to the two suspects’ lawyer saying: ‘I dearly love my father and brother.
‘The proceedings have caused me no end of distress and if it goes ahead, it will make things much worse for me.’
