Husband ‘tracked down fleeing wife and killed her as she walked with their baby’

A ‘jealous’ husband stabbed his wife to death after tracking her down to a refuge she had gone to escape him, a court has heard.

Habibur Masum, 26, allegedly launched a ‘ferocious’ knife attack on Kulsuma Akter, 27, while she pushed their baby’s pram in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

The mum had fled to a hostel in Bradford ‘to escape’ her husband’s ‘violence, jealousyand controlling behaviour’, Bradford Crown Court heard.

She was due to be rehoused just two days before her windpipe and left jugular vein were slashed.

Masum had been on bail conditions which ordered him to keep away from Akter, but in March that year, Akter allegedly told her social worker that her husband had contacted her

He had sent her a Snapchat with a threat to kill her brothers if she did not go back to him and the next day he sent another Snapchat video saying he had ‘come to her town’, jurors were told.

He then sent her a photo of the refuge where she was staying, adding: ‘I know that you are living in this place. I knew from the first day you moved here.

‘If I had any wish to kill you, I could have from the first day. You do not know what you have lost, but one day you will understand. Nobody will love you like I do.’

On the day of her death on April 6 last year, however, Akter ‘felt safe to leave the refuge’ because she had heard from Masum’s relatives that he was in Spain, jurors were told.

The mum was out walking her seven-month-old son in a pram with a friend when Masum walked with her into a shop.

Masum had tracked down his wife in Bradford in the days leading up to the attack and had tried to lure her out of the hostel by pretending to be from a GP’s surgery, the prosecution also said in court.

Footage seen in court showed Masum then walking with his wife before he spun her and her pram around.

He then pulled out a knife from his jacket and began violently attacking Akter, the court heard.

Prosecutor Steven Wood KC said: ‘He grabs Kulsuma and pushes her into a wall, stabbing her to the body. You will see that Kulsuma then goes to the ground only for the defendant to launch a ferocious and deadly attack.

‘When the defendant had finished stabbing her, as a final act of sheer gratuitous violence, he kicks Kulsuma before moving away, but not before ensuring that he disposed of the knife.

‘The [prosecution] say this was cold-blooded, calculated, pre-meditated murder.

‘Why would the defendant take a knife with him to meet his estranged wife unless he planned to use it?’

Akter had escaped previous threats on her life from her partner, who had been married for 18 months in November 2023, the court heard.

Mr Wood said: ‘Generally, the relationship had been good, but there were already warning signs.

‘There were previous incidents of his making threats to kill her and in July 2023, she was staying with family members because of his controlling behaviour.’

Jurors were told a ‘completely innocuous’ message from a male colleague to Akter, Masum became violent by slapping her and pulling her hair.

The court also heard ‘a chilling prediction’ made Masum, when he told his wife: ‘I am going to murder you, and the police will be taking me’.

The next day, he allegedly put a knife to her throat in their bedroom and threatened her over her relationship with the colleague.

Masum was arrested that night after a female family member called the police.

After denying using violence in a police interview, he was then charged with two offences of assault by beating and one offence of making a threat to kill.

Masum denies murdering Ms Akter but has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possession of a knife.

He also denies two charges of assault, one count of making threats to kill and one charge of stalking.

The trial continues.

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