Mother had Secret Code for Daughter due to Abusive Husband

A court heard that a husband was so “violent” towards his pregnant wife that his mother-in-law set up a secret code to alert police.

Kashif Anwar is accused of murdering Fawziyah Javed during their honeymoon in Edinburgh in September 2021.

He allegedly pushed her off Arthur’s Seat, leading to her and her unborn child’s deaths.

Anwar denies all the charges against him, including one of acting in a threatening and abusive way towards her at a hotel the day before the alleged murder.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Fawziyah’s mother Nighat Yasmin Javed said she and her daughter met Anwar at an opticians in Leeds city centre, near their home in Pudsey, where he worked as an optical assistant.

When Anwar saw Fawziyah alone one day, he told her she was the type of woman he wanted to marry.

The couple got married on December 25, 2020, but concerns were raised within months.

Mrs Javed said she was “very worried” about her daughter and gave her a secret code to say.

Mrs Javed said: “I said if you feel that you are in danger, just text me ‘I like cream cakes’, and I will contact the police.”

She did this because of the “abuse, the violence, the aggression, and coercive control” in the relationship, which included Anwar taking £12,000 from her daughter’s bank account while she was sleeping.

Mrs Javed said her daughter’s calls and texts were monitored by Anwar and approximately three months after the wedding, Fawziyah wanted to end the marriage.

She told the court: “The accused was being abusive, controlling, manipulative, aggressive and violent towards her.

“She didn’t want to stay in a marriage like that, she wanted to leave.”

The court heard a recording of Anwar’s wife phoning a legal firm for advice on getting a divorce.

The trial also heard from James Duncan, who was walking up Arthur’s Seat with his girlfriend on the evening of September 2 when Fawziyah was found.

He said: “There were a couple of screams to my recollection.

“One was from a female screaming, then I heard a male screaming after I heard the female scream.”

Soon afterwards, he saw Anwar with another woman. They were looking for a charged mobile phone to call emergency services.

Mr Duncan said: “The gentleman said his wife had fallen off the summit and wanted me to call 999 to get in touch with ambulance or police or emergency services to get them to help with the situation.”

In the first 999 call, operators were told she could be heard screaming after the fall.

In a second call, Anwar told the ambulance service they both slipped.

Mr Duncan told the court he had scaled the hill more than 100 times and said Anwar was wearing ordinary shoes and not hiking boots.

The High Court also heard a conversation between Anwar and Fawziyah that was overheard at Leeds General Infirmary on August 23, 2021.

Elizabeth Petty, who was working on the L44 ward that evening, said a patient told her Anwar told his wife:

“If you died during childbirth that would be okay. I would be free.”

When the midwife asked if that was what was said, Fawziyah confirmed it and appeared “scared” and “upset”.

Teacher Francesca Cooper was in the bed next to Fawziyah and had reported the conversation.

She told the court what she had heard, saying:

“I could hear him repeatedly call her a b***h, repeatedly saying he should never have married her, wishing he never married her, and if one of them died during childbirth that would be good because they would be free from one another.”

The trial continues.