A husband accused of raping his wife and treating her as a "slave and a whore" for more than a decade has been found not guilty.

He appeared in the dock at Kingston Crown Court this week alleged to have abused the woman moments after she requested an Islamic divorce.

The Mitcham couple cannot be named for legal reasons.

But the innocent man’s lawyer labeled the victim a “jilted liar” accusing her of making a false claim of rape, motivated by greed and jealousy. He was found not guilty by a jury on Thursday.

The court heard how the defendant had married an Indian relative of the wife while still in wedlock - permissible under Islamic law - sparking an end to their arranged relationship.

Defence barrister Charles Sherrard said: “I’m going to suggest you [the wife] are in the process of doing something very wicked to your husband, and that you are a skilful liar. You devised a plan with your brother to get revenge on your husband because he married your brother’s wife.

“I’m also going to suggest you are somebody who is only motivated by money.”

She replied: “No, no, it’s all the other way round, it’s the opposite.”

The man was charged with one count of rape in August 2009 but his wife told the court it was the fifth or sixth time he had committed the offence. She added on one occasion, in December 2007, he also attempted to strangle her and beat their three children.

But in cross-examination, Mr Sherrard said police only recorded an allegation of assault when called to the family home and read a statement made at the time in which she said: “He is a loving father and has never been violent towards the children.”

Mr Sherrard added he had paid for regular family holiday’s to India, English language courses, and out of compassion for his wife, funded more than £4,000 in funeral costs after one of her brothers was stabbed to death in 2003.

He said: “Your husband, who you say kept you a prisoner and a whore in your home, did this because you were upset, didn’t he?”

But the wife said: “He made me suffer emotionally and physically. I was confined to one room and he refused to take me out. There wasn’t even a TV.

“He wouldn’t take me out shopping and I was kept in the same room from morning until evening. All this time I’ve been living with him, I’ve suffered.”

The couple met in 1997 for the first time, a week before their arranged Indian marriage, and moved to Merton a year later.