NABELA TABASSUM JAILED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER OF STEPMOTHER
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, 19-year-old Nabela Tabassum was sentenced to nine years in prison.
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 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.
Despite her severe injuries – including bruising, a head wound from the hammer blow, and stab wounds to her arm and hand – Mrs.
Nazmin managed to lock herself in a room and call the police.
Her young daughter witnessed her injured mother after the attack.
Mrs.
Nazmin’s victim impact statement revealed her ongoing trauma: "I still panic when the door is knocked, I can feel the fear in my body.
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 described the incident as a "calculated and frenzied attack on a defenceless woman using weapons including a knife and hammer." Hussain and Tabassum fled Birmingham but were arrested in Bolton the following day.
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.
You attacked Mrs.
Nazmin in her own home.
Following the attack she felt compelled to leave her home." The case background includes Hussain’s troubled history, including his mother’s death in 2016 and his blame towards his father for her passing.
Hussain, who has ADHD and autism, married Tabassum, who was assessed in the bottom one percent of IQ, having met online, just weeks before the attack.
Deputy Crown Prosecutor Sean Kyne called the crime premeditated and commended the CCTV evidence that contradicted the defendants' claims regarding their intent.
The convictions bring some justice to Mrs.
Nazmin, who faces a lifetime of trauma inflicted by her husband's stepson and his wife.
