Husband Battered Sleeping Wife to Death With a Hammer Because Another Man Texted Her

A 'possessive and controlling' husband battered his sleeping wife to death with a hammer, hitting her 10 times after he found a text message she had sent to another man, a court heard.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.
A jury heard 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 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.