A man who stabbed his wife to death in front of their baby after tracking her to a refuge told a doctor he “felt like he would kill her” more than a year before the fatal attack, a court heard.
Kulsuma Akter, 27, was killed by her husband Habibur Masum, 26, after he confronted her in the street while she was pushing their seven-month-old son in a pram on April 6 last year.
A trial has heard Masum tracked Ms Akter to a refuge in Bradford, where she had been staying since January 2024 after he allegedly held a knife to her throat during an assault at their home in Oldham in November 2023.
Giving evidence at Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday, Masum said 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.
The defendant, who gave evidence through a Bengali interpreter, said they initially had a long-distance relationship as he lived in Aylesbury while studying and she lived in Oldham with her brother.
He told the court they had “occasional disagreements or arguments” about when they should live together and she would “block him” when she was angry.
Masum said: “I used to feel if I can’t be with her I would die.”
Jurors heard in August 2022 Masum was found by police at a tram station, where he had stayed all night after an argument with Ms Akter.
He was taken to hospital where he told a doctor “I feel like I would kill her” and said “when he fights with her he feels like he is going to kill her”.
Medical notes showed he “disclosed thoughts to harm himself and his girlfriend and admitted to carrying a knife while having these thoughts”.
Masum told the trial he had never carried a knife in Ms Akter’s presence.
Asked by his barrister Frida Hussain KC why he had made those comments at the hospital, he replied: “I said: ‘I feel I’m having some mental health issues and I would like to share something with the doctor’… I just wanted to share all that with the doctor.”
The court heard he was advised to register with a GP and seek support from his university.
Masum described feeling “depressed”, but said he never sought help from a GP.
The court heard he and Ms Akter moved in together in September 2022 and there were still arguments.
He said in July 2023 one of her brothers came to the UK and he objected to him staying with them because of “privacy and space issues”.
The court heard on July 5 Ms Akter had left after an argument and was staying with family members, who called the police saying Masum was threatening to kill himself if she did not return.
Asked if he was looking for a knife to do something to himself, Masum said: “Yes.”
He later denied thoughts of self-harm when the police attended, it was said.
Jurors heard Ms Akter returned and their child was born in September.
Masum said after Ms Akter and their son moved following the alleged assault in November, he was “depressed a lot”.
The defendant said: “I used to think a lot about my son. I was separated from my son and I was missing him a lot.
“I also used to think about my wife. I was thinking I hadn’t done anything to her, why had she separated me from my son.”
Masum said he was unable to focus on work or looking after himself and was having suicidal thoughts, adding: “I thought if I ended my life I wouldn’t struggle with this constant pain of missing them.”
Masum will continue his evidence on Wednesday.
He 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.
