Manchester Evening News, UK
May 13 2005

Battered wife killed husband

A MOTHER of three stabbed her violent husband to death and then set
fire to his body after enduring years of beatings, sexual abuse and
humiliation.

Armenian-born Lana Yadgari, aged 32, of Northridge Road, Blackley,
was jailed for four years at Manchester Crown Court on Wednesday.

The sentence was condemned by the Justice for Women organisation, who
said after Mrs Yadgari’s conviction that she had suffered from
battered wives’ syndrome and should have been freed to go home to her
children, aged 13, 12 and 10.

But the judge, Mr Justice Cooke, said although he accepted that she
suffered from battered wives’ syndrome, the offence was so serious
she had to go to jail.

The court heard how Mrs Yadgari lost control and killed her husband
when he forced her into the family car and drove to a secluded spot
where he threatened to kill her.

Mrs Yadgari had spent nine days in hosital after being badly beaten
by her husband just weeks before killing him.

She had denied murder, but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of
diminished responsibility.

She wept throughout the hearing, which had to be interpreted for her.
She will now spend another 17 months in prison before she can be
paroled.

Her counsel, Mr Rock Tansey QC, said the couple married in 1990 and
her husband became violent the following year because their first
child was a girl and not a boy.

Mr Tansey said: `She was a Christian and he was a Muslim, and he
blamed her because the child was not a boy. He would hit and punch
her, and after the second child, another girl, was born he again
became angry and blamed her.’

He said although her third child was a boy, Mrs Yadgari was still
constantly abused physically and sexually.

The family came to Britain in 2002 when Mr Yadgari tried to seek
asylum, but he continued to abuse her.

By the time of the killing Mrs Yadgari had a lover, but had not
reported the beatings to police.

On the day of the killing she had been forced into the family Astra
and she saw a knife and a petrol can. Believing she was going to be
murdered she fought back for the first time in her life.

She said: `It goes against what I believe and I am horrified by what
happened that night.’