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A married couple have been jailed for the attempted murder of the husband’s stepmother, an attack carried out with a hammer and knife, while wearing animal masks purchased from Poundland.
Wasif Hussain, 21, and his wife Nabela Tabassum, 19, were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday for the attempted murder of Arifa Nazmin in Kings Norton, Birmingham, on the evening of 29 January last year.
The court heard that the attack, which took place inside the family home, was captured by a CCTV camera. During the incident, Hussain struck Ms Nazmin’s head with a hammer before strangling and stabbing her, while his wife held her down.
Both Hussain and Tabassum, of Midhurst Road, Kings Norton, had denied attempted murder but were convicted by a jury in March. Hussain was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while Tabassum received a nine-year jail term.
Ms Nazmin complained to Tabassum’s parents that she did not help around the house, which increased the couple’s “resentment and anger” towards her, the court was told.
The court heard the couple planned to “burn the body”, but Ms Nazmin was able to lock herself in a room and call the police after she was attacked.
Sentencing the pair on Friday, Judge Paul Farrer KC said: “I have no doubt you were both well aware that what you embarked upon was seriously wrong.
“You attacked Mrs Nazmin in her own home. Following the attack, she felt compelled to leave her home.
“This was an offence committed against a particular background by two young, immature individuals who are unlikely to commit serious incidents of violence again.”
Prosecutor Rob Forrest told the court: “This was a planned attempt to kill Mrs Nazmin in her own home.
“That attack took place against a background of broken-down familial relations.”
The sentencing hearing was told that the couple married in December 2023 after they met online, and the attack took place within weeks of Tabassum moving into Hussain’s family home.
Mr Forrest alleged Tabassum “clearly” knew what was going on when the pair bought two animal masks from Poundland on the day of the attack.
The couple were captured on CCTV buying an aerosol can from a OneStop in Kings Norton two days before the attempted murder, which they intended to use in their plan to burn their victim’s body, the court heard.
Defence barrister for Hussain, Andreas O’Shea, said the man, who has “significant autistic traits”, was genuinely “remorseful and regretful” about the attack.
Mr O’Shea said: “This young man, as he says, knows his actions were wrong. He is fully reminiscent of the horror of the situation.
“The stepmother came into their lives and initially it appears he was able to talk to her, able to get on with her. But then there began some difficulties between the victim and the defendant’s wife which he had taken to heart.”
The court heard that Hussain’s mother took her own life when he was aged seven, and he “blamed” his father, who left her and started a relationship with Ms Nazmin shortly before her death.
Islam Khan, defence barrister for Tabassum, who held Ms Nazmin down during the attack and passed the knife to her husband, said: “She regrets, absolutely, what she did.
“If she were able to strongly speak to her husband – which she found herself in a difficult position – she wasn’t, she would never find herself in that position and she is remorseful, sincerely.”
The court heard that an IQ test placed Tabassum in the bottom one per cent of the population.
The young couple put on the masks and gloves before the attack, in which the victim suffered bruising, a wound to the back of her head from a blow using the hammer, and stab wounds to her arm and hand.
The court heard that Ms Nazmin’s young daughter was in the house and saw her mother injured after the attack.
Mr Forrest told the court of the impact on Ms Nazmin, and said: “She had flashbacks to when she was literally begging for her life in the kitchen. It came out of the blue for her.”
In her victim impact statement, which was read in part to the court, Ms Nazmin said: “I still panic when the door is knocked, I can feel the fear in my body.
“I’m terrified they have returned to finish me off. I will live with this for the rest of my life.”
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