A Syrian asylum seeker who tried to cut his wife’s head off and left her to bleed to death on their children’s bedroom floor has been jailed for at least 19 years and six months. Wahib Albaradan, 37, used two knives and a razor in a “prolonged, persistent and frenzied” attack on Salam Alshara, 27, at their home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, in November 2023.
He then removed any phones that could be used to call for help from the house and fled the scene, being arrested the next morning after a large police manhunt. On Tuesday Albaradan, who pleaded guilty to murder, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 19 years and six months by a judge who said he was a “jealous and controlling husband who bullied and manipulated (Ms Alshara)”.
Leeds Crown Court heard the couple had married in their native Syria and had four children but Albaradan, who was a farmer, had been an “angry and jealous” husband, leading Ms Alshara to almost divorce him at one point before he convinced her and her “loving family” that things would change. Albaradan came to the UK in 2020 and Ms Alshara joined him in 2021, with a neighbour in Dewsbury saying she was “timid and withdrawn” but “seemed really nice”.
Prosecutor Nicholas Worsley KC said, in the months before the murder, Albaradan became increasingly paranoid that Ms Alshara was talking to other men and disapproved of her installing apps like WhatsApp on her phone, convinced she was using them to have an affair and was “dishonouring” him.
Police at the scene in Dewsbury following Salam Alshara’s death (Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
He confiscated her mobile phone, tried to get her to wear a niqab covering her face – something the women in her family did not do – and told her stories about a man who had killed his wife and only got a few days in prison, Mr Worsley said.
Albaradan later told a psychiatrist he had tried to kill his wife by strangling her on a previous occasion, and she told her sister she was worried he would “carry out his threats and that something would happen to her”. The court heard on the day of the murder, the couple argued again and Ms Alshara may have told Albaradan she was going to leave.
Albaradan attacked her with two kitchen knives before taking what appeared to be a razor from a drawer and slashing at her neck, slitting her throat before leaving her to die. A pathologist found Ms Alshara had at least 20 sharp force injuries, including defensive injuries showing she had fought for her life.
CCTV showed Albaradan walking barefoot through the streets of Ravensthorpe, in Dewsbury, at one point discarding his bloodstained jogging bottoms in a garden shed.
Wahib Albaradan tried to decapitate his wife (Image: PA Media)
The court heard Albaradan has since been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and told a psychiatrist he believed Ms Alshara was talking to men on social media and he would have killed her if they were in Syria, adding: “That’s our law.” He also said nothing would have happened to him because it “would have been an honour crime,” Mr Worsley said.
In a victim impact statement from Ms Alshara’s parents read in court, they said “a crime committed treacherously had taken the light of our life away”. Geraldine Kelly KC, defending Albaradan, said he had a mental disorder and showed signs of trauma after being brought to the UK by traffickers.
