A man described as “violent, jealous, and controlling” has been convicted of murder after he fatally stabbed his wife in broad daylight, having tracked her to a women’s refuge.
Habibur Masum launched a “ferocious” knife attack on Kulsuma Akter as she pushed their seven-month-old son in a pram. The court heard he left her “bleeding to death in the gutter” before calmly walking away from the scene, abandoning their baby.
A court heard Masum, 26, followed Akter, 27, to a refuge in Bradford where she had been staying to escape him after he held a knife to her throat following an assault at their home in Greater Manchester.
After finding her through her phone location, Masum was seen on CCTV in the days leading up to the fatal attack “loitering, watching and waiting” in streets around the hostel, jurors heard.
He sent her messages threatening to kill her family members if she did not return to him, before trying to lure her out by sending her fake messages from a local GP practice pretending their son had an appointment and warning of “increasingly dire consequences” if she did not attend.
Bradford Crown Court heard Akter eventually felt safe enough to leave the refuge on 6 April last year after Masum updated his Facebook page, falsely claiming to be in Spain.
As she was walking in the city centre with a friend, pushing her baby in a pram, Masum confronted her, the trial heard.
He was seen on CCTV trying to steer Akter and the pram away before pulling a knife from his jacket and launching the “brutal attack” when he realised she was not coming with him, prosecutor Stephen Wood KC told jurors.
CCTV footage of the attack, played during the trial, captured Akter’s screams as Masum stabbed her at least 25 times, put her on the ground and kicked her “as a final insult” before lifting her head and deliberately cutting her throat.
Mr Wood said the “smiling killer” then calmly walked through Bradford city centre and was seen on CCTV grinning as he got on a bus, “believing at that point he was getting away”.
Jurors heard Masum travelled almost 200 miles south to Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and was arrested in the early hours of 9 April in a car park near Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where he had gone to be treated for “lockjaw”.
During the trial, Masum refused to watch footage of the attack, but jurors heard that during his first police interview he requested to see it, with Mr Wood saying he wanted to see what officers “had on him”.
When he gave evidence, Masum said he did not remember killing his wife and had taken a knife with him intending to stab himself in front of her if she did not “listen to him”.
He broke down in tears as he claimed to have “lost control” when Akter told him there would be no shortage of people willing to replace him as a father to their son.
But Mr Wood said his tears “were as fake as his claims of self-harm” and that “the only person Habibur Masum feels sorry for is himself”.
He said antagonising Masum was “the very last thing Kulsuma would do” as she knew what he was capable of.
Mr Wood said the relationship between Masum and Akter was “an abusive relationship characterised by his jealousy, possessiveness and controlling behaviour”.
Jurors heard the couple met and married in Bangladesh, and came to the UK in 2022 after he obtained a student visa and enrolled on a Master’s course to study marketing.
The defendant, who gave evidence through a Bengali interpreter, told the trial that they initially had a long-distance relationship as he lived in Aylesbury while studying and she lived in Oldham with her brother.
Jurors heard that in August 2022, Masum was found by police at a tram station, where he had stayed all night after an argument with Akter.
He was taken to hospital where he told a doctor that “when he fights with her, he feels like he is going to kill her”.
They moved into a house in Oldham together in September 2022.
Jurors heard that in July 2023, Akter went to stay with her brother because of Masum’s controlling behaviour, leading him to threaten to harm himself with a knife before she returned.
On 23 November, he became jealous over a “completely innocuous” message she received from a male colleague and was accused of assault by grabbing her face, slapping her and pulling her hair. He was cleared of that charge.
The court heard he told her: “I am going to murder you, and the police will be taking me.”
The following day, he went into their bedroom carrying a knife and held it to her throat, jurors were told.
Akter’s sister-in-law called the police and Masum was arrested, with Akter deciding to leave him and move to the Bradford refuge by Oldham social services in January 2024.
Masum denied the November incident and claimed Akter had fabricated a domestic violence case against him as a way to stay in the UK, while he wanted to return to Bangladesh.
The court heard that while Akter was at the refuge, Masum sent her a photo of the front of the building with a message saying: “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.”
The court heard Akter’s social worker arranged for her to be rehoused, and she was due to move on 8 April, but in the meantime, she heard from Masum’s brother that he was in Spain, and “felt safe to leave the refuge” on the day she was killed.
Masum had pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder. On Friday, he was found guilty of the more serious charge, as well as one charge of assault, one count of making threats to kill and one charge of stalking. He pleaded guilty to possession of a knife in public.
