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A young married couple, Wasif Hussain and Nabela Tabassum, have been handed significant jail sentences after a jury found them guilty of the attempted murder of Hussain's stepmother, Arifa Nazmin. The chilling attack, which saw the pair don Poundland animal masks before assaulting Mrs. Nazmin with a hammer and knife in her own kitchen, unfolded on January 29, 2024, at their home in Kings Norton, Birmingham, Daily Dazzling Dawn understands.
At Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, 21-year-old Wasif Hussain was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while his 19-year-old wife, Nabela Tabassum, received a nine-year jail term. The court heard the horrific incident was captured on a CCTV camera inside the family home. Prosecutors detailed how Hussain struck Mrs. Nazmin's head with a hammer, then strangled and stabbed her, while Tabassum restrained the victim.
The motive for the brutal assault stemmed from simmering domestic resentments. The court heard that Mrs. Nazmin had complained to Tabassum’s parents about her lack of help around the house, accusing the jobless young couple of treating the family home "like a hotel." These complaints reportedly intensified the couple’s "resentment and anger" towards Mrs. Nazmin.
The trial revealed disturbing details of the couple's premeditation. Two days before the attack, Hussain and Tabassum were captured on CCTV buying an aerosol can from a Kings Norton shop, which they intended to use as part of a plan to burn Mrs. Nazmin's body after the murder. However, Mrs. Nazmin, despite her severe injuries – including bruising, a head wound from the hammer blow, and stab wounds to her arm and hand – bravely managed to lock herself in a room and call the police after the assault. Her young daughter was also in the house and witnessed her injured mother after the attack.
In her powerful victim impact statement, partially read to the court, Mrs. Nazmin revealed the enduring trauma. "I still panic when the door is knocked, I can feel the fear in my body," she stated. "I’m terrified they have returned to finish me off. I will live with this for the rest of my life."
Detective Inspector Laura Allen of West Midlands Police described the incident as a "calculated and frenzied attack on a defenceless woman using weapons including a knife and hammer." She highlighted Mrs. Nazmin's sheer luck in surviving. Following the attack, Hussain and Tabassum fled Birmingham but were arrested in Bolton in the early hours of the following day.
Sentencing the pair, Judge Paul Farrer KC emphasized the severity of their actions. "I have no doubt you were both well aware that what you embarked upon was seriously wrong," he told the couple. "You attacked Mrs. Nazmin in her own home. Following the attack she felt compelled to leave her home."
The court was also told about the background to the case: Wasif Hussain's biological mother died in 2016, reportedly by suicide when he was seven, and his father subsequently began a relationship with Mrs. Nazmin. Hussain, who has ADHD and autism, blamed his father for his mother's death and claimed he had been bullied. The "dynamic" in the household reportedly shifted in December 2023 when Hussain's siblings left and he married Tabassum, whom he had met online. Tabassum, who was assessed as being in the bottom one percent of the population for IQ, moved into the family home permanently in early January 2024, just weeks before the attempted murder.
Sean Kyne, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS West Midlands, reiterated the premeditated nature of the crime: "This was a premeditated, frenzied attack on a woman in her own home. The fact the defendants wore animal masks no doubt added to the terror of her ordeal." He commended the clear CCTV evidence that contradicted the defendants' claims regarding their intent.
The case serves as a stark reminder of the dark undercurrents that can exist within family dynamics, culminating in premeditated violence. While the country of origin for the three individuals was not specified in court reports, their names and the cultural context often reported in similar cases suggest they are of British South Asian heritage, a significant community in areas like Kings Norton, Birmingham. The convictions and sentences bring some measure of justice to Mrs. Nazmin, who faces a lifetime of coping with the trauma inflicted by her husband's stepson and his wife.
