Man ‘knifed his wife to death over affair’
HUSBAND WAS FOUND BY POLICE STANDING OVER WOMAN’S BODY COVERED IN BLOOD
A MAN stabbed his wife to death after becoming ‘consumed with anger and resentment’ when he learned she had been unfaithful, a court heard.
Mohammed Choudhry, 36, denies the murder of 33-year-old Saima Riaz, who was found dead at their home in Smallbridge, Rochdale.
She sustained more than 75 wounds including ‘particularly severe’ cuts to her neck ‘suggesting an attempt at decapitation,’ prosecutor Alaric Bassano said.
Police battered the couple’s front door down after worried calls from neighbours to find Mr Choudhry stood over his lifeless wife in bloodstained boxer shorts, the court heard.
Manchester Crown Court was told Ms Riaz had confided to others she was ‘afraid’ of her husband, and that he had assaulted and threatened her.
Jurors heard that neighbours saw Mr Choudhry attacking his wife in their back yard in what the prosecution say was ‘sustained and determined violence.’
Mr Choudhry, who has a ‘depressive illness’ and who is currently undergoing treatment for it at the Edenfield Centre in Prestwich, says he has no recollection of the events of the early hours of April 23 last year, the court heard.
Opening the case for the Crown, Mr Bassano said that Ms Riaz had told a friend in October 2018 that she was ‘dissatisfied’ at life with her husband, and that she had fallen in love with another man.
In December, Mr Choudhry’s brother Amar had learned of the affair after gaining access to her messaging accounts, the jury was told.
Ms Riaz, who had been married to Mr Choudhry for 13 years under Islamic law but wasn’t formally married in UK law, was told to go to a ‘family meeting’ where she was presented with evidence of the affair.
Mr Choudhry was not told of the affair or the meeting, but prosecutors said his brother began to ‘control’ Ms Riaz’s behaviour and who she could contact.
In January last year Mr Choudhry’s brother told him about the affair, but when the defendant spoke to his wife about it, she denied it.
Mr Choudhry was said to be in a ‘rage’ and allegedly ‘slapped’ her.
Ms Riaz, a mental health nurse at Royal Oldham Hospital, had also asked her work colleagues to lie for her if her husband called.
She called a colleague in a ‘distressed’ state saying that Mr Choudhry had ‘threatened to kill her,’ the trial, being presided over by judge Richard Mansell QC, was told.
Neighbours said that in the early hours of April 23 they heard ‘screaming and shouting’ from the couple’s house.
As officers entered they found Mr Choudhry standing in his boxer shorts ‘covered in blood,’ and Ms Riaz was lying ‘lifeless’ on the kitchen floor, the court was told.
Four knives were recovered containing Ms Riaz’s blood and DNA.
The trial is expected to last for three weeks.
● Proceeding