Harry Potter actress's brother jailed for attacking her

The brother of a Harry Potter star has been jailed for six months for a "prolonged and nasty" attack in which the actress was beaten and branded a "slag" for dating a non-Muslim.

Afshan Azad, 21, who played Padma Patil, a classmate of the teenage wizard, in the blockbuster Hollywood films based on JK Rowling's children's books, feared for her life during the three-hour ordeal, Manchester Crown Court heard.

She was punched, dragged around by her hair and strangled by her brother Ashraf Azad, 28, who threatened to kill her after he caught her talking on the phone to her Hindu boyfriend on 21 May last year, the court was told.

During the row at the family home in Longsight, Manchester, which also involved her mother and father, she was branded a "slag" and a "prostitute" and told: "Marry a Muslim or you die."

The actress, who now lives in London, had begged the judge not to jail her brother. But Judge Roger Thomas QC sent him to prison for six months after he pleaded guilty to the assault.