Murderer had been ‘desperate’ to get family back together

DEFENCE barrister Mukhtar Hussain QC said it was a ‘sad and tragic case’ and Saleem Said was ‘desperate’ to get his family back together.

The court heard how the statement’s read out by Leanne’s family played a ‘major part’ in his decision to plead guilty and he didn’t want her family to ‘go through and relive the circumstances of these very tragic events’.

Mr Hussain said their separation ‘clearly affected the defendant’s metal health’ and he became ‘extremely depressed, tearful and uncharacteristically was not fit to go to work’.

He also started to consider self-harm and began to ‘formulate various ways to end his own life’.

Mr Hussain told the court: “He was desperate to put the family unit back to what it was.

“There’s clearly a gradual worsening of his mental state after the separation.”

The barrister read out a series of ‘desperate’ text messages from Said to Leanne from the end of June and early July 2017.

One said: “I know you won’t have me back but I have to try because I miss you so much.

“Sorry for trying so hard”

Another read: “I have gone over the top with the messages sounding needy and desperate.

“Shouldn’t have gone that way about things.

“Now feel embarrassed.”

One message from July 6 said: “Sorry for everything.

“It would have been different this time.

“I know that for a fact but I understand why you can’t believe that.

“My feelings for you are stronger than yours for me.

“I just hope that you don’t regret losing me because I’m always going to regret losing you.”

Mr Hussain claimed that Said had not taken the knives and petrol to Leanne’s house to kill her but as an ‘irrational and deranged way of thinking’ to get back together.

He told the court: “He thought if he could convince Leanne that his previous declaration of ending his life were both real and genuine then that may persuade Leanne to get back together.”

Stockport-born Said began work in the care sector after finding out a cousin was diagnosed with severe autism.

A statement from his employer read out at the hearing said he was ‘very good at his job because he cared’. The employer also described Said as an ‘ambassador for the business’.