Man ‘casually walked off' after stabbing wife to death and leaving baby

Independent

a day ago

A husband 'casually walked off down the street' after stabbing his wife to death in broad daylight and leaving their baby son behind, a court heard.
Habibur Masum, 26, threw the knife away before 'dusting his hands and calmly carrying on' as his wife was lying fatally injured in the street, a witness said.
Jurors at Bradford Crown Court have heard Masum tracked Kulsuma Akter, 27, to a refuge in Bradford where she had been staying to escape his 'violence, jealousy and controlling behaviour'.
She left the hostel to go out with a friend on April 6 last year, believing Masum was in Spain, but he confronted her in the street as she was pushing their seven-month-old son in a pram.
Prosecutors say he launched a 'ferocious' knife attack leaving her with multiple stab injuries, including one which severed her jugular vein.
On Tuesday the trial heard statements from witnesses to the attack, including a man who described hearing Ms Akter 'screaming in agony and pain'.
The witness said he was walking in the area with his pregnant wife and saw what looked like a man trying to drag a woman off a pram and 'punching her in the abdomen'.
The statement read: 'I did step forward to see if I could help the woman but then I realised he had a knife in his hand.
'I didn't see the knife or blood but I saw the stabbing motion which made it obvious he was stabbing her.
'He then overpowered her and threw her down in front of a car.
'The female was still screaming and then the screaming stopped. She wasn't shouting words or a name but was screaming in agony and pain.'
The witness said: 'Within seconds the guy stood up and walked off down the street.
'At that point I wasn't sure if… this was a male stabbing random people so I turned my family round and started walking back to our home address.
'I kept an eye on the male as I was concerned for my family. I saw him throw what I assumed was the weapon over a fence.
'He then dusted his hands and calmly carried on walking.'
Another woman said she was in a car with her sister and sister-in-law when she heard screaming and saw a man stabbing a woman.
Her statement described how she saw the woman falling to the floor and the man 'casually walking off down the street' before throwing the knife away.
The court heard Ms Akter had been moved from her home in Oldham to the refuge in January 2024 after telling police that Masum had assaulted her, held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her over a 'completely innocuous' message she received from a male colleague at a factory.
In a statement she made to police which was read in court, Ms Akter said: 'I was very frightened when he was holding the knife as I believed what he was telling me and that he might kill me… I do not want to stay with him anymore.'
She told officers her relationship with her husband of 18 months was 'usually good' but that 'recently he has been controlling me… taking my phone off me and not letting me contact anyone'.
A friend of Ms Akter's from the refuge said Masum had tracked his wife through her phone location, which she had forgotten to turn off when she left their home.
In a police interview played in court, the woman said Ms Akter told her they had married in Bangladesh and it was a 'love marriage'.
In a short opening address to jurors, Frida Hussain KC, defending Masum, said: 'You will need to consider whether he attacked her because he was triggered by something that she said or did that caused him to lose his self-control.'
She told the jury they would also need to consider whether at the time he 'was suffering from an abnormality of mental function'.
Masum denies murdering Ms Akter but has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possession of a knife.
He also denies two charges of assault, one count of making threats to kill and one charge of stalking.
The trial continues.