Leeds dad tried to stab wife to death in front of toddler

After the knife attack, Mahmood Sadiq used the toddler’s bib to stop her bleeding to death.

Sadiq, 44, went into a “fit of rage” and thrust the large kitchen knife into his partner’s neck before using it to inflict wounds upon himself to make the incident look like a fight.

Sadiq was jailed for 12-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to attempted murder over the near-fatal attack in November 2013 at the family home on Burley Lodge Terrace, Leeds.

The victim had to undergo life-saving surgery after suffering a severed artery and a punctured lung.

Describing Sadiq’s relationship with his Chinese-born wife, prosecutor Andrew Kershaw said: “He was controlling over her sexually, emotionally, socially, financially and in relation to her immigration status.”

Mr Kershaw added: “The Crown’s case is that he could not handle the ongoing truth that his marriage was coming to an end and the adverse consequences for him and his lifestyle.”

Teesside Crown Court heard Sadiq has two other children to a previous wife and that relationship also broke down as a result of his controlling behaviour.

The court was told the trigger for the attack may have been Sadiq’s dislike of the way his three-year-old daughter had drawn a picture of her half sister.

Mr Kershaw described how, moments before the attack, he accused the toddler of drawing the picture “in a horrible way” and asked if her mother had taught her to do it that way.

Sadiq then argued with his wife in the kitchen before pushing her to the floor and taking a 19cm knife from a block and stabbing her.

She suffered further wounds to her arm during the struggle which took place as the child entered the room and began screaming.

The woman was struggling to breathe and asked her husband to call an ambulance.

Mr Kershaw said Sadiq dialled 999 but was evasive with the operator. He said: “He was more bothered about his actions than his victim.”

Sadiq then used the bib to try to stop the bleeding to his wife’s neck.

Before police arrived, Sadiq used the weapon to inflict superficial wounds to his chest, hands and leg.

The court heard the couple first met in 2007, after Sadiq’s first marriage had ended, when she was working at a shop in the Merrion Centre in Leeds.

She was 25 at the time and he was 37.

Mr Kershaw said she became pregnant in 2009 and Sadiq became unhappy when a 20-week scan showed that she was expecting a baby girl.

The prosecutor said: “The accused was upset that it wasn’t a boy and showed his feelings.”

Paul Greaney, QC, mitigating, rejected the Crown’s case that Sadiq’s relationship with the victim had been abusive.

The barrister told the court it was likely that Sadiq was suffering from a mental health disorder at the time of the attack as a result of the stress of marital breakdown.

He had been so see a doctor, was taking medication and had not been sleeping prior to the incident.

Mr Greaney said Sadiq had tried to be rational and responsible over the problems with his wife and there was evidence that he had shown “nothing but love and affection for all his children.”

He added: “The defendant’s position is that, having lost control as he plainly did, very shortly afterwards he came around and saw the terrible thing he had done and took some action, at least, to assist his wife.”

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, said: “This is clearly a grave crime because on pleading guilty, you have accepted that it was your intention to kill her - to end her life and to deprive, therefore, your daughter of her mother.

“You have been described as a manipulative and controlling individual in your relationship. I make no finding on that.

“This is simply not a matter that is necessary for me to come to a ruling on.”

The judge added: “You clearly did not react well to your wife’s decision to leave you

“As to what was the precise mechanism for the attack on her, we may never know.

“The final straw may well have been you taking offence at the drawing by your three-year-old daughter.”