Man stabbed wife and casually walked off - court

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 has heard.

A witness described how Habibur Masum threw the knife away before "dusting his hands and calmly carrying on" as his wife lay fatally injured outside a shop in Westgate, Bradford, in April 2024.

Jurors heard how Masum had tracked down 27-year-old Kulsuma Akter to a refuge in the city where she had been staying to escape his "violence, jealousy and controlling behaviour".

Mr Masum, 26, of Leamington Avenue, Burnley, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possession of a bladed article, but has denied a charge of murder.

Bradford Crown Court was told on the day of the attack Ms Akter had left the hostel to go out with a friend believing her husband was in Spain.

However, he later confronted her in the street as she was pushing their seven-month-old son in a pram.

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 saw what looked like a man trying to drag a woman off a pram and "punching her in the abdomen".

He said: "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 witness said afterwards the man "walked off down the street" and threw away what he assumed was a weapon.

His statement added: "He then dusted his hands and calmly carried on walking."

Another woman said she was in a car 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 Mr 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 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 "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 Mr Masum had tracked his wife through her phone location, which she had forgotten to turn off when she left their home.

In a short opening address to jurors, Frida Hussain KC, defending, 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".

Mr Masum also denies two charges of assault, one count of making threats to kill and one charge of stalking.

The trial continues.