Married couple stabbed groom’s mother while wearing giraffe masks in ‘frenzied attack’
The couple are believed to have tried to kill her after being accused of not doing ‘treating the family home like a hotel’
A husband and wife have been found guilty of stabbing his stepmother while wearing giraffe masks after they were accused of not doing enough chores in the family home.
Wasif Hussain, 21 and his wife Nabela Tabassum, 19, wore the animal masks before they launched the attack in the victim’s home in Kings Norton, Birmingham.
The couple are believed to have tried to kill her because they were angry when she accused them of “treating the family home like a hotel” and not pulling their weight with daily chores.
The two snapped and launched into a “calculated and frenzied attack” using a knife and hammer after they were finally asked to leave.
The attack was caught on a camera installed in the home, where Hussain could be seen striking her head with a hammer, strangling, punching and stabbing her while Tabassum restrained her on 29 January last year.
The victim suffered stab wounds to her arms as well as other defensive knife injuries.
She managed to convince the couple to let her go upstairs where she was able to lock herself in a room and call police for help.
The couple fled Birmingham but were arrested in Bolton in the early hours the next day.
DI Laura Allen said: “This was a calculated and frenzied attack on a defenceless woman using weapons including a knife and hammer. She was very lucky to have managed to get away, lock herself in a room and ring us.
"The evidence we provided at court helped to convict these two of attempted murder. They are set to spend many years behind bars when they next appear in court for sentence."
The couple had denied attempted murder but were found guilty following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court which concluded last Thursday (27 March).
They will be sentenced on 21 May.