Husband Beats Wife to Death With Hammer After Reading Her Text Message To Another Man

A man in the UK has been accused of battering his sleeping wife to death with a hammer last November, and then fleeing the country.

The 'possessive and controlling' husband, Danish Irfan, 22, hit his wife Ridda Zanab’s skull so hard that fragments of bone were forced into her brain, killing her within minutes.

The case is now in court, where a jury heard that the sustained attack, which involved at least 10 blows as his wife lay sleeping under a duvet, was sparked by the discovery of a text message she had sent to a man named Rob, which read: 'I luv yu, mwahhh, gud nyt.'

The 21-year-old victim had only given birth to the couple's daughter two months before her death. After the wife's death, the husband took the baby to his mother and told them his wife had abandoned them.

As reported by Dailymail Online;

After the killing at their home in Bradford, West Yorkshire on November 3 last year, Irfan changed his blood-stained clothing and took their baby in a taxi to where her mother and sister lived nearby.

Prosecutor, Jonathan Sharp, told Bradford Crown Court on Monday that Irfan told a series of lies to his wife’s family saying that the deceased had 'kicked off' and left their home.

Irfan said he needed to leave the baby with them because he had to go to work, but instead he travelled to Manchester Airport where he unsuccessfully tried to get himself deported back to Pakistan as his student visa had expired.

The jury heard that Irfan, who has admitted manslaughter but denies murder, made his way to London where he eventually obtained a false passport and used it to fly to Islamabad from Heathrow Airport.

However, he told a friend that he had killed his wife before he left the country and when police broke down the door to their home on the afternoon of November 4 they found Ms Zanab’s body.

The police obtained an arrest warrant for Irfan and in February the defendant alerted the authorities to the fact that he was returning to Heathrow where he was detained and charged with the murder of his wife.

Outlining the case to the jury, Mr Sharp said Irfan and his wife were from very different backgrounds.

He said Ms Zanab had been born in Bradford and had a Westernised outlook on life.

'She liked a night out and she had a rebellious streak to her,' said Mr Sharp.

The court heard she had a number of boyfriends before meeting Irfan when she was just 19, and that he had only been in the country for six or seven months.

'By all accounts he did not share Ridda’s pleasure in going out,' said Mr Sharp.

'Ridda’s family did not approve of him and their relationship was kept partly secret. When they got married no family members were invited.'

The couple initially lived together in the Huddersfield area where in December 2012 Ms Zanab was taken to hospital with red marks on her neck. Irfan admitted he had tried to smother her with a pillow and strangle her.

Just one month later Ms Zanab fell pregnant and the pair moved back to Bradford.

'According to her family Danish became more possessive and controlling and did not like Ridda seeing her friends and family,' said Mr Sharp.

'Danish objected to the idea of Ridda going to work or wearing western clothes. He also became more jealous.'

Mr Sharp said that after the birth of their daughter in September last year, Irfan became more jealous and it was suggested he was tracking her on his iPhone.

He told the jury that by late October Ms Zanab had come to the conclusion she was no longer going to be a loyal wife and in the days leading up to her death developed a relationship with another man.

She was spending a lot of time with a close friend known as ‘Rob’, the jury was told.

The court heard that Ms Zanab had told Irfan their relationship was over and would stay out until the early hours of the morning.

On the day she was killed, Ms Zanab came home at 4.42am. She had sent the text message to ‘Rob’ shortly after midnight.

Mr Sharp said some time that morning, Irfan read it.

'The defendant came into the bedroom, he was holding a hammer. He repeatedly struck her to the head, swinging at least ten hard blows down on her skull,' he told the jury.

Mr Sharp said Ms Zanab died within minutes of the attack from massive brain damage.