Student 'executed' his ex-girlfriend after campaign of abuse

A jilted teenager was jailed for life yesterday for the "deliberate execution" of his ex-girlfriend.

Gulamyr Akhter, 19, stabbed A-level student Asha Muneer, 18, to death on a tow path in Reading on a freezing January evening this year after she rejected him.

He was found guilty of murder yesterday by a jury at Reading Crown Court and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 20 years.

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Judge Zoe Smith told him: "This was nothing less than a deliberate execution.

"This was a brutal attack with a knife which you carried with you to kill her. The killing was carefully premeditated and planned."

The prosecution alleged that Akhter, of Reading, murdered the young woman "because he could not tolerate her rejection of him". He had bombarded Ms Muneer with more than 600 calls and texts in the two weeks before her death.

He also lied to police, claiming he did not have her number on the mobile he gave them and had not contacted her for weeks.

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He was "embittered by rejection" after the student ended their relationship in July last year, the court was told.

Following the split he sent her a long list of abusive text messages. One read: "I'm going to make your life hell." Another said: "I wish you go through hell and you die."

John Price QC told the court Akhter had two phones, one of which he had kept secret from police.

He said Akhter used one of these phones to harass Ms Muneer and that both handsets could be traced to the location and time of her death on January 18 this year.

Akhter was accused of repeatedly stabbing Ms Muneer as she walked through Reading after a shift at a Laura Ashley store, where she worked as a part-time sales assistant.

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