A husband ‘tortured’ and killed his wife while playing the Koran at full volume in a bid to drown out her screams, because of a row over a shelf, a court has heard.
Thahi Manaa, 37, of Firth Park, Sheffield is accused of killing his wife Sara el Shourefi at their home on March 4, 2014.
Police recovered several blood-stained implements near Ms el Shoureifi’s body, including an electric drill, two metal bars, two screwdrivers and a wooden shelf. A screwdriver had also been driven into the 28-year-old victim’s eye socket penetrating her brain.
Sheffield Crown Court heard that the attack happened in a downstairs living area while his own mother and children aged two and four were locked elsewhere in the rented property.
Prosecutors claimed that following the attack, Manaa bound his wife’s legs with packing tape before bundling her body into a cupboard.
Relatives alerted the police later that same day.
Manaa, who was born in Kuwait and came to the UK in 2010 and granted leave to remain until 2016 denies his wife’s murder on grounds of diminished responsibility but has admitted her manslaughter.
A post mortem counted 270 injuries on Ms el Shoureifi’s body, including a large number of puncture wounds while clumps of her hair had been torn out.
Her scalp was hanging off her head and she had been kicked and stamped upon as well as a knife being used on her neck.
Nicholas Campbell QC, prosecuting, said: ‘It was a sustained and brutal attack and Sara received sadistic injuries.’
Sheffield Crown Court heard Manaa gave various accounts to psychiatrists before claiming to have lost his memory about the attack.
He told one doctor the couple had ongoing rows about a shelf he had put up in the living room.
Mr Campbell said: ‘His wife wanted it to be moved. There was an argument and he hit her with his hands and with the shelf he was trying to reposition.
‘He said he hit Sara on the head and shoulders with the shelf and she became a little tired. He offered to take her to hospital or call 999 but she told him it would not be necessary. He went upstairs but when he came back down she was lying on the floor. There was a screwdriver sticking out of her left eye.’
Neighbours heard high-pitched screams and the sound of banging coming from the house on the morning of the alleged murder.
One said: ‘It seemed as if Sara was being tortured. It seemed as if she was in a lot of pain.’
Another witness heard Manaa hitting his wife. ‘She pictured Sara on the floor with the defendant coming in and out of the room shouting and hitting her. As the assault continued the screams became more laboured until everything went silent.’
In a statement to police, Manaa’s nephew Ahmad Jabber admitted his uncle told him: ‘I have killed my wife. His eyes were bulging and he seemed to be a crazy person as if he was out of his mind.’
Manaa came to the UK in 2010 and his wife a year later. He was granted leave to remain in the country until 2016.
Both of their families were known as ‘bidun’ or stateless in Kuwait and had moved around the Middle East because their safety could not be guaranteed.
The couple married in 2004 and they brought their three children with them and had a fourth child over here.
But his wife’s only close relative in the UK was her younger sister Narjis Farhoud who lived just two minutes away from the family’s privately rented home in Firth Park, Sheffield.
Prosecution counsel Mr Campbell told the court that most of the victim’s family were back in Kuwait. ‘Her isolation from the family at home is a significant factor in the events which unfolded.
Ms Farhoud told the court that her sister was pretty with long hair but the longer she lived with her husband, the more subdued she became. She started wearing glasses and had limited reading and writing skills.
Ms Farhoud said her older sister was not allowed out of the house on her own and had to ask Manaa to buy her sanitary towels.
The court heard that the victim was not allowed to learn English and admitted to her sister that she was being physically abused, but ‘had to bear it.’
Mr Campbell told the court that Manaa would beat his wife for the slightest reason. ‘He punched her regularly and when she tried to protect herself he would grab her hand and control her movements. He would pull out chunks of her hair.’
He added: ‘Narjis believed not a week would go by without her sister being assaulted in one way or another although Sara told her she was hit almost every day.
‘Sara said she accepted all of this behaviour because she loved him.’
The court heard that Manaa took his wife’s mobile phone from her at the beginning of 2014 to prevent her from having any contact with her family in the Middle East. She could only talk to her sister through her mother-in-law.
The trial continues.
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