Amnesiac has no memory of killing wife

● Psychiatrists diagnose first offender was suffering from acute stress disorder

A man has admitted killing his wife while she slept, but insists he has no memory of the attack.

Asghar Buksh beat his wife Nasreen, a mother-of-six, over the head at least five times with a heavy blunt object that has never been found, the High Court in Glasgow heard yesterday.

Buksh, 55, was originally charged with murdering his wife but the Crown accepted his plea of guilty to the reduced charge of culpable homicide on the basis of diminished responsibility.

The killing took place in the family home at Dixon Avenue, Glasgow, on 24 September last year.

Sentence was deferred.

A man admitted killing his wife of 25 years while she slept but said he had no memory of the attack.

Asghar Buksh beat his wife Nasreen, a mother-of-six, over the head at least five times with a heavy blunt object that has never been found.

Buksh, 55, was originally charged with murdering his wife but the Crown accepted his plea of guilty to the reduced charge of culpable homicide on the basis of diminished responsibility.

The killing took place in the family home at Dixon Avenue, Glasgow, on 24 September last year.

Buksh, who yesterday wept as he sat in the dock in the High Court in Glasgow, has no memory of the attack, the court heard. The last thing he remembers is sitting down to a family meal and the next waking up in a police cell.

Buksh, who has a shop in Paisley, made his way to Cathcart Police Station and arrived there just before 7am.

He told an officer: “I’ve come to hand myself in. I think my wife’s dead. I hit her on the head. I did it.”

Police went to the flat in Dixon Drive Glasgow and found Mrs Buksh dead.

Pathologists said she sustained at least five blows and that the lack of defensive injuries and the position of her body was in keeping with her being assaulted as she slept.

The court heard that three psychiatrists diagnosed that first offender Buksh was suffering from acute stress disorder at the time.

Prosecutor Gordon Lamont said: “The accused and his wife had been married for 25 years, but over the last ten or 11 years their relationship appears to have broken down and they became increasingly estranged, albeit, still residing under the one roof. Recently they slept separately and Mrs Buksh routinely slept on the sofa in the living room. Their children report that they barely spoke to each other.”

The court was told that against this background of estrangment the police had been called on a number of instances and Mrs Buksh was charged with breach of the peace.

The problems in the marriage intensified after Mrs Buksh went to Pakistan on holiday in May last year.

Mr Lamont said: “She went on holiday and it appears she entered a relationship with another man named as Rana. It would appear that she returned from Pakistan and began making plans to move there to set up home with this other male.”

However, Buksh was unaware of her plans until a week before he killed her.

Defence counsel Sarah Livingstone said: “My client has no memory of this incident. His amnesia is absolutely genuine.”

Sentence was deferred.