A husband and wife who donned Poundland giraffe animal masks before attempting to kill his stepmother in a knife and hammer attack were jailed today for a total of 24 years.
Wasif Hussain, 21 and his wife Nabela Tabassum, 19 attacked Arifa Nazmin at Hussain’s family home because they were angry at being accused of not doing any chores and treating the house like a hotel.
The pair snapped and launched the brutal assault on Ms Nazim after they were told to leave the property in Kings Norton, Birmingham.
Video footage released by police showed the young couple shopping for the masks they wore in teh attack. The pair were also recorded fleeing Hussain’s family home following the attack.
In the frenzied attack, which was caught on a camera installed in the home, Hussain struck her head with a hammer, strangling, punching and stabbing her while Tabassum restrained her.
Hussain and Tabassum had denied attempted murder but were convicted following a trial in March.
Today Hussain was jailed for 15 years and while his wife received a nine-year custodial sentence after a judge heard the attack took place against a ‘background of broken-down familial relations’.
The trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard that the victim suffered a stab wound to her arms as well as defensive knife injuries but survived the January 2024 attack.
The court heard the couple planned to ‘burn the body’, but Mrs Nazmin was able to lock herself in a room and call the police after she was attacked.
Immediately after the attack the two defendants fled Birmingham, heading more than 100 miles north to Bolton, Greater Manchester, where they were tracked down and arrested by police early the following day.
Sentencing the pair today, Judge Paul Farrer KC said: ‘I have no doubt you were both well aware that what you embarked upon was seriously wrong.
‘You attacked Mrs Nazmin in her own home. Following the attack she felt compelled to leave her home.
‘This was an offence committed against a particular background by two young, immature individuals who are unlikely to commit serious incidents of violence again.’
Prosecutor Rob Forrest told the court: ‘This was a planned attempt to kill Mrs Nazmin in her own home.
‘That attack took place against a background of broken-down familial relations.’
The sentencing hearing was told the couple married in December 2023 after they met online and the attack took place within weeks of Tabassum moving into Hussain’s family home.
Mr Forrest alleged Tabassum ‘clearly’ knew what was going on when the pair bought two animal masks from Poundland on the day of the attack.
The couple were captured on CCTV buying an aerosol can from a One Stop in Kings Norton two days before the attempted murder, which they intended to use in their plan to burn their victim’s body, the court heard.
Defence barrister for Hussain, Andreas O’Shea, said the man, who has ‘significant autistic traits’, was genuinely ‘remorseful and regretful’ about the attack.
Mr O’Shea said: ‘This young man, as he says, knows his actions were wrong. He is fully reminiscent of the horror of the situation.
‘The stepmother came into their lives and initially it appears he was able to talk to her, able to get on with her. But then there began some difficulties between the victim and the defendant’s wife which he had taken to heart.’
The court heard that Hussain’s mother took her own life when he was aged seven and he ‘blamed’ his father, who left her and started a relationship with Mrs Nazmin shortly before her death.
Islam Khan, defence barrister for Tabassum, who held Mrs Nazmin down during the attack and passed the knife to her husband, said: ‘She regrets, absolutely, what she did.
‘If she were able to strongly speak to her husband – which she found herself in a difficult position – she wasn’t, she would never find herself in that position and she is remorseful, sincerely.’
The court heard that an IQ test placed Tabassum in the bottom one percent of the population.
The young couple put on the masks and gloves before the attack, in which the victim suffered bruising, a wound to the back of her head from a blow using the hammer, and stab wounds to her arm and hand.
The court heard that Mrs Nazmin’s young daughter was in the house and saw her mother injured after the attack.
Mr Forrest told the court of the impact on Mrs Nazmin, and said: ‘She had flashbacks to when she was literally begging for her life in the kitchen. It came out of the blue for her.’
In her victim impact statement, which was read in part to the court, Mrs Nazmin said: ‘I still panic when the door is knocked, I can feel the fear in my body.
‘I’m terrified they have returned to finish me off. I will live with this for the rest of my life.’
Detective Inspector Laura Allen, of West Midlands Police, said: ‘This was a calculated and frenzied attack on a defenceless woman using weapons including a knife and hammer. She was very lucky to have survived this attack.
‘I would like to thank Sergeant Gareth Glass who worked tirelessly along with his team to gather vital evidence which ultimately led to Hussain and Tabassum’s conviction.
‘My thoughts are with the victim who continues to recover from the trauma of her experience.’
Sean Kyne, deputy chief crown prosecutor for CPS West Midlands said: ‘This was a premeditated, frenzied attack on a woman in her own home. The fact the defendants wore animal masks no doubt added to the terror of her ordeal.
‘Working with police, we were able to clearly show the level of planning which went into the attack. Clear CCTV evidence from the kitchen of the home also contradicted their accounts of the level of harm they intended to cause.
‘I hope today’s sentence affords the family some comfort as they come to terms with this dreadful attack.’
