A pregnant Muslim woman was ordered by magistrates to remove her veil while she gave evidence against her violent ex-partner yesterday.
Georgina Richards, 36, initially refused for religious reasons but reluctantly agreed when magistrates said they might not accept her evidence if they could not see her 'facial expressions'.
The case at Leicester Magistrates Court was held up for over an hour while magistrates agreed to hear her evidence from behind a screen.
Chairman of the bench Lawrence Faulkner told her: 'We need to see a person’s facial expressions to assess the evidence they are giving.
'If you refuse to remove your veil, we may not be able to accept your evidence.'
Miss Richards, who is heavily pregnant, gave evidence against her ex-partner Ismail Mangera, 30, from behind a screen in the courtroom.
Mr Mangera was found guilty of punching Miss Richards in the face and scrawling abuse on her front door.
But after the hearing, Miss Richards hit out at the magistrates for forcing her to remove her veil.
She said: 'I was a bit unhappy that he told me to take my veil off.
'They put screens up next to me but I didn’t really want to do it.
'But I thought the case would be dropped if I didn’t take it off.
'It just made me feel uncomfortable. They wanted to see the expression on my face but I don’t think it really matters, I think I could have done it with my veil on.'
'Now I just feel relieved that I’ve said what I’ve got to say.'
Miss Richards told the court her religion states she should not remove her veil in front of men in public.
Magistrates heard that Mr Mangera attacked Miss Richards, mother to three of the couple’s children and eight months pregnant with their fourth, between April 1 and April 30.
The magistrates warned Mangera he was facing jail.
Sentencing was deferred until October 20 to allow a probation report to be produced.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Daily+Mail+Reporter
