Man who strangled his mother to death when she told him to move out is jailed for life

Majid Butt says attack happened in 'moment of madness'

Majid Butt, 51, admitted murder and was jailed for life (Metropolitan Police)

A man who strangled his mother to death after she told him to move out of the family home has been jailed for life.

Majid Butt, 51, murdered his 71-year-old mother at the home they shared in west London in May.

Butt strangled Onees Khatoon with electrical cable, which he was still carrying when he walked into his local police station in Hayes and told officers: “I came here to confess that I have strangled my mother.”

Jobless Butt claimed he acted in a “moment of madness” after his mother, who suffered from diabetes and heart problems, threatened to throw him out of the family home.

He later pleaded guilty to murder.

Judge Nicholas Cooke QC handed him a life sentence on Wednesday, telling him he must serve at least 15 years and 10 months in prison.

“No sentence I can pass can undo what you did. What you did do in killing your own mother, the person who brought you into this life, was an act of unusual wickedness,” the judge said.

“Everyone has a duty to care for and protect their mother. You breached that duty in the most emphatic way.

“She was vulnerable in her own home, not only by age, but also because of her medical condition.”

The court heard Butt had lived with his mother for a total of 41 years and was invited back into her house in October last year, having been asked to leave after the death of his father in 2009.

Joe Stone QC, defending, said Butt had previously been a loving and caring son, who had made his mother breakfast and massaged her legs when they were swollen.

“This is a tragic, spontaneous act that has been triggered in highly-charged, extreme circumstances when the background is he loved and cared for his mother over a substantial period of time,” Mr Stone said in mitigation.

Butt wrote a letter from his cell in Belmarsh prison last month saying he wanted to express his “deep” remorse for his crime and the loss felt by his three siblings and Ms Khatoon’s grandchildren.

“None of my family should have to go through such trauma caused by my moment of madness,” he said in the note read out in court.

“I accept for my crime I deserve to be punished. It is my family who are now being punished and suffering for my shameful behaviour.

“I sincerely hope and pray they can forgive me. I’m truly sorry for my actions.”

Additional reporting by PA