Jealous husband Khurram Bhatti strangled and stabbed his wife after she confessed to an affair, a murder trial jury was told.

Bhatti had been violent and domineering towards his wife, Fozia Ahmed, and treated her like a slave, it was alleged at Bradford Crown Court .

Prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC claimed Bhatti lost his temper after Mrs Ahmed told him she wanted to move out and take their two children with her.

Miss Colborne told the jury: “The prosecution say he attacked the deceased, intending to kill her, she having brought shame and embarrassment upon him. This was a loss of temper, to which he was prone.”

Miss Colborne said Bhatti, 32, who denies murder, walked into Keighley police station on February 29 this year and said he had tried to kill his wife, and did not know if she was alive or dead.

Officers, alerted by family members, found 26-year-old Mrs Ahmed in the bedroom of the couple’s home in Manor Drive, Cottingley , Bingley . She had been strangled, stabbed in the lower neck and had a laptop computer cable round her neck.

She had defence wounds to her hands and had suffered a fractured larynx.

A pathologist found she died from strangulation with the stab wound contributing.

Miss Colborne said it was anticipated the defendant would say he was guilty of manslaughter, and not murder. He was expected to claim he lost his self-control when his wife threatened to take his children from him, or kill them, rather than let him have contact with them.

But the prosecutor told the jury: “If you think that, in truth, the defendant killed his wife because he was jealous, jealous of a relationship she had engaged in with another man, that would not justify a loss of control.”

She added that a spouse seeking comfort elsewhere was not a licence to kill them.

Miss Colborne said Bhatti chose to kill his wife, and had been violent within their marriage for years.

“He loathed dissension and she was too independent in his eyes. He sought to exercise control over her movements and habitually beat her when she was disobedient, like a slave.

“The prosecution say the defendant’s relationship with the deceased was soured by his domineering attitude towards her. This manifested itself in acts of violence perpetrated against her.”

The trial continues today.