Man and lover face life in jail for murder of wife

A MAN and his suspected lover faced life sentences today for murdering his wife before dumping her body in woodland in Leeds and setting it alight.

A Leeds Crown Court jury unanimously convicted Akshar Ali, 27, and Yasmin Ahmed, also 27, of murdering 26-year-old mother of four Sinead Wooding at Ahmed’s home in Reginald Mount, Potternewton, last May.

Miss Wooding had been attacked with a hammer and stabbed six times.

The jury was told Miss Wooding’s body was kept in the cellar at Ahmed’s home for two days before being transported to woodland near a lane in Alwoodley, north Leeds, where it was set on fire.

They had heard mother-offour Miss Wooding suspected her husband and Yasmin Ahmed had been involved in a sexual relationship, but both denied having an affair.

The jury found Vicky Briggs, 25, of Throstle Road, Middleton, guilty of assisting an offender by helping clean up and burn material after the murder

Akshar Ali’s mother Aktahr Bi, 45, and his brother Asim Ali, 21 – both of Kings Road, Hyde Park, Leeds – were both found not guilty of assisting an offender.

Yasmin Ahmed and Vicky Briggs are due to be sentenced this morning.

The jury was told Miss Wooding had started to convert to the Islamic faith and changed her name to Zakirah before she met Akshar Ali, who worked on a food stall at Leeds indoor market.

The couple signed a marriage contract after an Islamic Nikah ceremony in February 2015. Prosecutor Nicholas Campbell QC told the jury said it was a “volatile” and sometimes violent relationship and that Miss Wooding had continued to visit a female friend and her family after he had “forbidden” her from visiting.