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Deranged man killed mother of one

12/ 5/2008

A DERANGED lodger stabbed his landlord's girlfriend to death in front of her baby son.

Imtiaz Ahmed, 37, slashed the throat of 21-year-old Jeanette Hullah and left her body with her 18-month-old son at their home in Cheetham, Manchester.

A court heard that Ahmed had been allowed to stay at Jeanette's house as an act of kindness after her partner, Muhammed Farhan Akhter, was asked to look after him by relatives in Pakistan.

But Ahmed, who suffered from mental illness, was asked to leave after he stopped paying any rent and began harassing Jeanette and following her to the shops.

In December, 2006, Jeanette phoned her partner and told him that Ahmed was still at the house in Galsworthy Avenue.

Later that day, Mr Akhter returned home to find Jeanette had been attacked and her body left in the house. Their son, Humza, was sitting nearby in his pushchair.

Ahmed had used at least one ligature to strangle her, slashed at her throat with a knife and stabbed her in the back. She was already dead when paramedics examined her. At Manchester Crown Court Ahmed was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.

He was found unfit to stand trial by doctors who concluded he had been mentally ill since he was 16 and suffered from a schizo-effective disorder highlighted by delusions, hallucinations and psychotic episodes.
But, in law, a jury still had to decide if he `did the act', even though the defence did not dispute any of the prosecution evidence.

Ahmed moved into the house as a lodger after his father met Mr Akhter in Pakistan and expressed concerns about his son because he had no one to care for him in England.

"Mr Akhter felt sorry for the defendant and treated him very generously, even though he was often drunk and sometimes unable to pay the rent," said prosecutor Richard Marks QC.

A few weeks before the killing, Ahmed, armed with a number of knives, was stopped by police in the street. He moved out of the house but `begged' Mr Akhter to let him return. But his behaviour started causing more problems and, four days before she was strangled, Jeanette complained to Mr Akhtar that Ahmed was following her round the house and to the shops.

Ahmed assured Mr Akhter he was only `looking out for her,' added Mr Marks.

But then, while Mr Akhter was at work, Ahmed strangled her with a piece of fabric.

A shoelace tied in a loop and a piece of telephone wire were on the floor nearby. When arrested, Ahmed denied the killing but, during two appearances in front of magistrates he confessed, shouting out: "I murdered her, I am going to tell the magistrate I murdered her."

Mr Akhter told the court he had been left devastated by the death. In a victim impact statement he said: "I miss everything about Jay.

"We used to spend every moment we could together. I really miss her on her birthday and my son Humza's birthday.

"I keep her clothes and a picture of her by my bed along with pictures of Humza. I only ever saw my future with her. Jay still does mean everything to me."