A husband convinced his wife he could watch her using 'spiritual power' - and made her sign a contract promising she'd never drink, smoke or lie - a court heard. Lukman Shonibare, 44, told wife Lyndsay his powers meant he'd seen her smoking at home, but actually he was watching her via a hidden camera, it is alleged.
In a statement read by Roger Brown, prosecuting, she said: "He threatens me with spiritual power and that he's higher than another human being. It scares me because of spiritual powers in Africa." "He said to me that he wouldn't marry someone like me if I didn't change my behaviour and he didn't want to marry someone who drinks or smokes", she told the court from the witness box. "I just apologised and said I won't do it again.
In a statement she told the jury he once pinched her over 20 times before splashing her face with water so that she couldn't speak and telling her that he was the 'boss'. Mr Shonibare's behaviour towards his wife became much worse after Mrs Shonibare's grandfather, who lived with the couple, died in April 2020, the court heard. Speaking of her husband's behaviour in June 2020, Mrs Shonibare said: "I just felt like I was in a torture chamber at that point."She was smoking on the balcony outside her apartment following her grandfather's death in 2020 while her husband was out, the jury heard.