A brother accused of dragging his sister back to their family home against her told a jury he had been trying to comfort her.

Erkan Satlik, 23, is accused of falsely imprisoning Ozlem, 21, at their home in New Lane Hill, Tilehurst, in August, last year.

He, along with mother Milkinaz Satlik, 48, and father Zorbe, 46, deny false imprisonment between August 9 and 12, last year.

Milkinaz and another defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are also facing charges of assaulting her daughter.

Under cross examination on Wednesday Erkan told the court he went outside their house when he heard a car pull up and said he saw his sibling, who was crying, get out of the vehicle.

Speaking through a translator, Erkan said: “Ozlem came out from the car, she was already crying quite a lot.

“She was very stressful and her make-up on her eyes was already running down.”

He told the court his distressed sister walked down the road away from him and their house so he followed because he “was worried something bad had happened to her” and he wanted to find out what was wrong.

The jury heard Ozlem suddenly sat in the road and he attempted to comfort her, but she was “refusing” to speak to him.

Tom Godfrey, prosecuting, suggested Erkan then tried to “pull” his sister back to the family home.

But the defendant denied the allegation and said he “held her arm” in a supportive gesture as they walked back to the house.

The court heard police arrived shortly afterwards and their visit came as a “shock” to Erkan.

The previous Monday the court heard from Ozlem who said she had lied about her parents keeping her locked up in the family house for three days.

She had initially told police she had married her second cousin in July 2010 despite not being in love with him and her family were angry with her because they disapproved of a new boyfriend, called Sami.

Ozlem said, in an interview with police, that she had escaped from the house after being held captive for three days last August and went to Sami’s home.

She said he drove her back home to talk to her parents despite her protests and when they arrived Ozlem got out the car and ran away from the home along New Lane Hill.

Ozlem said in the interview her brother, Erkan, caught up with her and hit her, forced her to the ground and kicked her before dragging her back to the house where the assault continued.

But under questioning from Mr Godfrey she said she had been lying.

Speaking through an interpreter Ozlem said: “I’m telling the actual truth here.

“The reason I have come here is to tell everybody the truth because I couldn’t sleep at night because my conscience was racked with guilt.

“If I had known the consequences were going to be this, I wouldn’t have lied at all.”

Mr Godfrey asked why, if she had been lying to police in August, she had obtained forced marriage protection orders in November and December last year, which are intended to protect a person forced into a marriage.

Ozlem said she only went along with the orders to satisfy the women’s refuge where she was staying.

She said: “Because I wanted to go back to my family so much, in order for them [the refuge] to feel okay I said I will go for it because I knew it wasn’t going to mean anything, so for them to let me go I agreed to it.”

The trial continues.

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