Murder charge husband 'obsessed with sister'

A husband accused of having his wife hacked to death was "obsessed" with her older sister, a court heard today.

Anita Shinh, 30, said she did not want to be alone with Harpreet Aulakh, who is said to have arranged the murder of Geeta Aulakh, 28, in November last year.

Mrs Aulakh, a receptionist at Sunrise Radio, had her hand lopped off during the attack, alleged to have been carried out because she wanted a divorce.

Miss Shinh said her sister had told her that Aulakh was "very dangerous".

She added: "She told me that he was obsessed with me and he told the oldest son to call me 'mum'. I didn't want to go to the flat. I didn't want to be alone with him. I was scared."

Miss Shinh also said Aulakh had made a phone call saying he knew his wife had a boyfriend and threatened: "I'm going to kill him and I'm going to kill her."

She told an Old Bailey jury: "I had to calm him down. I told him she didn't have a boyfriend. He just started swearing at me, started calling me a slag, that I was sleeping with everyone. I put the phone down on him."

Miss Shinh said she told her sister about the call, which took place when the two of them were at a family wedding in India, and urged her to go to the police.

She added: "I have been telling her for years to go to the police. What could I do? Physically drag her? She was so scared. I couldn't go to the police.

"Through fear, she would have denied it. Then I probably would have got into trouble for wasting police time."

Mrs Aulakh had told her sister she was being harassed by her husband and that he had hacked into her Facebook account, the court heard.

Miss Shinh said: "She told me that he is very dangerous."

A neighbour of the victim, Ana Rosa Serrano, said she had told her Aulakh was "obsessed" with the idea she was having an affair, and that he had laughed at her when he she said she wanted a divorce.

Harpreet Aulakh, 32, of Chesterton Close, Greenford, and Sher Singh, 19, of Wren Avenue, Southall, Harpreet Singh, 20, of Elmwood Road, Slough, and Jaswant Dhillon, 30, of High Road, Ilford, east London, deny murder.