A man who stabbed his wife to death as she pushed their seven-month-old baby in a pram has been found guilty of murder.
Habibur Masum, 26, launched the “ferocious” attack on 27-year-old Kulsuma Akter after tracing her to a refuge where she went to escape his “violence, jealousy and controlling behaviour”, a court heard.
She suffered more than 25 knife injuries in the attack after Masum found her through her phone location and confronted her in a street in Bradford, West Yorkshire, on 6 April last year.
Masum was arrested 150 miles away in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, after a four-day manhunt.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possession of a knife but denied murder, claiming he had intended to kill himself in front of his wife but “totally lost control”.
Masum was also convicted of one count of assault, making threats to kill and one charge of stalking.
He was cleared of another charge of assault.
Bradford Crown Court heard Masum had previously held a knife to his wife’s throat and threatened to kill her, while Ms Akter told a social worker she “believed that one day her husband would kill her”.
He was subject to court bail conditions ordering him to keep away from her at the time of the killing.
Prosecutor Steve Wood KC told the jury Masum tracked Ms Akter to Bradford and, days before the attack, tried to lure her into leaving the refuge by pretending to be from a GP’s surgery and offering her fake appointments.
She was walking with a friend and pushing her son in a pram at 3pm when she was confronted by Masum, who she thought was in Spain.
CCTV showed Masum walking with Ms Akter until he stopped her, spun her and the pram around, and pulled a knife from his jacket.
Ms Akter fell to the ground after being stabbed before Masum launched “a ferocious and deadly attack”, in what was a “cold-blooded, calculated, premeditated murder”, Mr Wood said.
“As a final act of sheer gratuitous violence, he kicks Kulsuma before moving away, but not before ensuring that he disposed of the knife,” he said.
Ms Akter suffered multiple stab injuries to her body and face, including a wound to the neck, the court heard.
Giving evidence through a Bengali interpreter, Masum told the jury he tracked down his wife “still optimistic” he could save his marriage, but if that did not work he thought “I will just kill myself in front of her”.
He broke down in tears as he said, “I totally lost control”, later saying that the next thing he could remember was walking along the road with bloodstains on his hand.
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