24 year-old Haroon Ashraf of Bordesley Green stabbed his wife after three years of marriage when she refused to let him have his cannabis. The mother, Neelam Ashraf wanted to protect her children. Judge Murray Creed ruled that 'she did not want you taking drugs in her presence or the presence of your son (…) you lost self control and lunged at her, she put her arm up to protect herself from the knife (…) you would have hit her in the face if she had not put her arm up.'
Neelam had found the drugs stash and hid them in a kitchen cupboard the court heard. On this day Ashraf carried out a three hour attack in which he sprayed her in the face, throttled her and pulled her hair. Five days later, after a heavy night of drinking, he attacked again with a knife as Neelam continued to refuse him the cannabis.
Ashraf claimed that his wife had stabbed herself in a jealous rage because she thought he was having an affair. He has been sentenced to jail for five years.
