Footage released by police has shown the moment a man was caught on CCTV smiling as he boarded a bus after tracking his wife to a women’s refuge and stabbing her to death.
Habibur Masum, 27, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 28 years for murdering Kulsuma Akter as she pushed their baby in a pram before calmly walking away, leaving their seven-month-old son behind.
The prosecution told jurors during the trial that CCTV footage of Masum’s movements after the attack showed a “smiling killer”.
Bradford Crown Court heard Ms Akter had fled to a refuge in Bradford to escape her husband after he held a knife to her throat 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.
Ms Akter left the refuge on April 6 last year and as she was walking in the city centre with a friend, pushing her baby in a pram, Masum confronted her.
He was seen on CCTV trying to steer Ms 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.
The footage of the attack, played during the trial, captured Ms 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: “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.”
Footage released by police after Masum’s conviction showed him calmly walking away from the murder scene and through Bradford city centre.
Mr Wood, who showed the footage of Masum walking through Bradford to jurors, said it showed no signs of him being “distressed”, as he had claimed in his evidence.
Of the close-up of Masum getting on a bus smiling, Mr Wood said it “removed all possible doubt” about his state of mind.
“There were no tears, there was no distress,” he said during the trial.
“Perhaps, members of the jury, the smile you can clearly see form as he gets on that bus is as a result of him thinking at that point he’s getting away. The smiling killer.”
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”.
