The council has launched a High Court bid to stop two parents and their children leaving the country following claims they threatened to murder their eldest daughter if she rejected a forced marriage.

The couple, who live in Croydon but are originally from Afghanistan, allegedly threatened to behead the woman, who is in her twenties, if she brought "dishonour" on her family.

They were arrested in April by the Metropolitan Police, but Croydon Council launched civil proceedings against the parents after detectives decided there were no grounds for prosecution.

The family division of the High Court of Justice heard last month that police had seized the passports of the parents, who have two children under the age if 18, in April fearing "criminal offences may have been, or were planned to be, committed upon" the children.

The council's concerns centre on a report compiled by authorities in another European country, where the family lived until last year, stating the eldest daughter had suffered violence at the hands of relatives, who it said had threatened her with death if she refused to wed.

The report, written in 2008 and presented the High Court by council lawyer Alastair Perkins, said: "The girl stated that she has for a long time been exposed to pressures from her parents to go to Afghanistan, with the intention of being forcibly married.

"The plan was that the family would go on a 14-day vacation, but [the daughter] would stay there for six months, before she comes home as a married woman."

It added: "The girl talks about violence against her from the family, mother, father, brother and grandmother. This has increased during the past month and has been happening on a daily basis.

"The girl said that her parents told her that she would be killed if she would not travel, because this will bring dishonour to the family."

The country's children and family service first contacted the daughter after concerns were raised by her school about "violence and intimidation, including death threats, isolation of the girl, family's monitoring of the girl, and a threat that the girl would be sent back to Afghanistan".

According to the report, the daughter - who does not live in the UK - was later "repeatedly told" by her mother that her father would "cut off her head" if she alerted the authorities again.

Speaking at a High Court hearing on October 9, Mr Justice James Holman admitted he had "no idea as to the reliability" of the report, but noted the daughter was described as "credible" and said "the contents of that document are such that I cannot ignore them".

Croydon Council had applied for a forced marriage protection order on October 7 to prevent the parents, their two youngest children and a third child - all of whom cannot be identifed for legal reasons - leaving England and Wales after it learned the mother planned to visit Afghanistan.

Mr Justice Holman said: "The local authority very strongly resists that, for they do not, frankly, trust this family an inch.

"They consider that if any parent is allowed out of England and Wales, there is a real risk that, by some means or another, these children will also be spirited out of England and Wales."

He granted a temporary order ahead of a full hearing on December 20.

Croydon Council declined to comment on proceedings and refused to say if it had applied for such an order before.

Breaching a forced marriage protection order is punishable with up to five years in prison, while a law introduced in June this year means parents who force their children to marry can be jailed for seven years.

The Government's Forced Marriage Unit, formed jointly by the Home Office and Foreign Office in 2005, gave advice and support in 1,302 possible forced marriage cases last year.

Of those, 82 per cent involved women and 2.8 per cent involved Afghan nationals.

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