A woman bravely told her child's teacher that she was in danger following a brutal beating - as her abusive husband loitered outside the school. Sobhan Azizi, 33, repeatedly attacked his wife of 10 years with a metal pole the night before.
The woman was unable to leave her home, except to take her child to school. If she did, Azizi demanded access to her phone so he could share her location.
Before the attack, he showed her a two-inch metal pole, hissing: "This is for you." Days later, he told her he was going to 'beat [her] so badly'.
Azizi then attacked her - punching, kicking and hitting her with the pole. She was left with bruising over her entire body, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
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The next morning, as she dropped her child off at school, she found a teacher. Using a translator app on her phone, the woman told her: "I'm in danger, please help me, please contact the police."
Azizi, from Rochdale, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm; and intentional suffocation. He was was jailed for a year and 10 months.
The court heard Azizi, from Iran, moved to the UK in 2020 as an asylum seeker. He was granted leave to remain for five years, before he applied for his wife and child to move to over.
"The victim was only able to leave the house when taking her child to school," Nicholas Roxborough, prosecuting, said. "He would have her phone and turn the location services on, sharing it with himself.
"A few days before he bought a metal pole, two inches thick, and showed it to her, telling his wife 'this is for you'."
On October 5, the woman was attacked. Mr Roxborough said: "The defendant said he was going to beat her, and he began to follow through with that, kicking and punching the complainant before hitting her with the metal pole.
"He also placed his hand over her mouth. She said she couldn’t breathe and got a pain in her chest."
Azizi said he put his hand over her mouth to stop her shouting at him, which wasn't challenged by the prosecution. As she dropped off her child the next morning, scared she was going to be attacked again, the woman woman made the 'brave decision' to raise the alarm.
"She found a teacher and using an app on her phone to translate the conversation, told her 'I'm in danger, please help me, please contact the police'.
"The teacher alerted the safeguarding lead, who said it was clear she was visibly upset and shaking. They took her phone, which was ringing, and it became apparent that the defendant was ringing her.
"The phone did not stop for five minutes. A short time later they observed the defendant loitering around outside the school gates appearing agitated and peering into windows."
Azizi was arrested. He told them he activated location services on her phone as she was new to the country and often 'got lost'.
Mitigating, Constance Halliwell said her client was 'deeply remorseful and regretful'.
"He was in a paranoid state of mind as a result of coming to this country and changing religion," she said. "He was threatened by Muslim members of the family and faced persecution. There was significant trauma as a result of his escape from Iran, the same trauma for his wife."
Judge Recorder Andrew Mcloughlin said: "And the link between this persecution and hitting his wife with a metal police is?"
"There is no link, Your Honour. That's purely an explanation of his background and state of mind at the time," Ms Halliwell said.
Recorder McLoughlin said: "It's clear to me that the placement of those injuries mean that you repeatedly struck her with that metal pole and have I have concluded that this was a prolonged assault. She had to go to her children's school and seek refuge."
Azizi, of Marlborough Street, Heywood, was made the subject of a restraining order banning him from contacting his wife for seven years.
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