A “violent, jealous, controlling” husband who stabbed his wife to death as she pushed their baby in a pram after tracking her to a women’s refuge was captured on CCTV casually walking around a city centre in the minutes after the murder.
Habibur Masum launched a “ferocious” daylight knife attack on Kulsuma Akter before leaving her “bleeding to death in the gutter” and calmly walking away from her and their seven-month-old son.
A court heard Masum, 26, followed Ms Akter, 27, to a refuge in Bradford where she had been staying after he held a knife to her throat following an assault at their home in Greater Manchester.
After tracking his wife 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 Ms Akter messages threatening to kill her family members if she did not return to him, before trying to lure her out by sending fake messages from a local GP practice pretending their son had an appointment.
Bradford Crown Court heard Ms Akter eventually felt safe enough to leave the refuge on April 6 last year after Masum updated his Facebook page falsely claiming to be in Spain.
He confronted her as she was walking in the city centre and was seen on CCTV trying to steer her 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 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 cutting her throat.
Footage released by police after Masum’s conviction shows him calmly walking away from the murder scene and through Bradford city centre.
Jurors heard Masum travelled almost 200 miles south to Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and was arrested in the early hours of April 9 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 through a Bengali interpreter, 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 Ms 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”.
The prosecutor said the relationship between Masum and Ms 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 Masters course to study marketing.
On November 23 2023 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 he was going to murder her, and held a knife to her throat the next day.
Masum was arrested and charged over the incident, with Ms Akter deciding to leave him and being moved to the Bradford refuge by Oldham social services in January 2024.
The court heard that while she 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 Ms Akter’s social worker arranged for her to be rehoused and she was due to move on April 8, 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.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said no officers will face action after Ms Akter contacted West Yorkshire Police a week before she was killed saying Masum had sent her death threats.
The watchdog said officers were sent to the area but no suspect was found, and an intelligence report was then shared with Greater Manchester Police three days later.
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.
Masum did not visibly react as the verdicts were read out. He was told by the judge Mr Justice Cotter, that he will be sentenced on July 22, when the minimum term for his life sentence will be determined.
