Sheikh Shahidul Islam Pic: Metropolitan Police

A man was sentenced  to life imprisonment on Monday, November 19, for the fatal stabbing of his wife in May this year.

Sheikh Shahidul Islam, 35, of Bromley By Bow, was sentenced at the Old Bailey to a minimum of 14 and a half years.

Islam had pleaded guilty to murdering his wife Rushna Begum at their home.

Begum was found on May 25 with three stab wounds, one to the neck and two to her left arm. Islam was arrested later that day and subsequently charged with murder.

Prosecutor Peter Kyte QC told the court that Begum had complained to her housing manager that Islam was abusive and threatening.

The court heard that Begum had said: “I’m extremely concerned about my safety and the safety of my children as my husband has on numerous occasions threatened to kill me.”

Begum made a formal complaint to police in 2011 after Islam had threatened her with a knife. She told officers she had been “mentally tortured for the last two years.”

Police were called to the couple’s home in May this year following concerns raised by a neighbour. They discovered the 28-year-old’s body and pronounced her dead at the scene.

Detective Chief Inspector Pete North, of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said: “This was a violent and despicable crime against his wife who loved him.

“He murdered Rushna whilst their two-year-old son was present in the address and then left him alone with his mother’s lifeless body.

“The tragedy of Islam’s crime is that he has deprived his two children of their mother.”