kicked, punched and treated as a slave

It's been a week of domestic violence stories in Manchester.
First we saw a man jailed after attacking his partner with some dumbells and leaving her for dead (see below).
Now it's the turn of a young Pakistani bride who was beaten, mentally abused and treated as a slave by her British Asian husband and his supposedly pious family.
Along with the husband, who she had little choice but to marry, the worst abuser was actually her mother in law.
The attacks - which involved being dragged by her hair, hit with crockery, punched and kicked, took place almost daily and began less than a week after her arrival in Manchester.
The girl is one of the lucky ones in that she has managed to escape. But she is now stuck in Britain because her return home would bring shame on her parents.
A refuge worker who was with the young woman, told me she believes the issue of domestic violence within the Asian and other minority communities desperately needs addressing.
The safe house she works at predominantly caters for Asian clients, and has access to interpreters and other relevant services. While there is nothing to suggest a higher occurence of violent relationships within such groups, social and cultural factors mean those which do occur are much more difficult to deal with.
For a start, victims may not speak English or understand their rights or the support available to them. But other considerations, such as family honour, social stigma and uncertain immigration status may hold people back from seeking help.
Crucially, in this particular case, NHS staff were happy to let the mother in law translate - even when the woman was brought in to hospital black and blue and extremely agitated.
It's extremely rare for an Asian victim to come forward and speak in this way, but the bravery of such women may help pave the way for a proper debate.