RAHMAN: SOLICITOR SOBS AS HE GETS 18 YEARS FOR WIFE SLAYING

A solicitor who battered his wife to death before texting her sister and ordering her to collect the body wept as he was jailed for at least 18 years today (Thurs).

Mohammed Rahman, 32, flew into a rage and attacked Jasmin Chowdhury with a weightlifting bar after she accused him of having an affair with another woman.

Rahman then fired off a series of text messages to her family before leaving his wife, also 32, to die on their bed.

He had been violent towards Ms Chowdhury for years, once smashing her head against a car windscreen when she confronted him over a sex tape featuring him and another woman.

But the NHS administrator was unable to tell her family the relationship was failing for fear of embarrassment because it had not been arranged marriage.

Instead, she tried to brush off the attacks, once even joking: ‘He’ll probably end up killing me.’

Rahman denied murder, claiming his wife had been violent towards him and self-harmed, but was convicted after a trial at the Old Bailey.

Judge Timothy Pontius jailed him for life with a minimum term of 18 years.

He told him: ‘I have no doubt that you treated Jasmin appalling, both verbally and physically, abusing her on a regular basis.’

The judge added: ‘In common with all bullies, you readily took advantage of your superior height and weight, lashing out when you lost your temper during arguments.

‘As a result a large, loving, close-knit family has been robbed of a greatly loved and god-fearing sister.’

In a statement read to the court, Ms Chowdhury’s elder brother Shiraj Islam said: ‘Despite having lived under Rahman’s manipulation, control, infidelity and torture, she lived her life as normal.

‘She wanted to protect her family from the horrific truth. It pains us greatly to know how she had been subjected to the physical torture of domestic violence for a number of years, equating to approximately a third of her life.

‘I believe part of the reason she didn’t confide in her family was because she chose Rahman as her husband.

‘It wasn’t an arranged marriage and I believe this would have made her embarrassed if she then came to us to tell us the marriage was not working.’

Rahman, a solicitor specialising in immigration and asylum law, battered Ms Chowdhury to death at their flat in (27 Stanliff House) Cassilis Road on the Isle of Dogs, east London, last December 17.

The lawyer, who ran the Tower Hamlets Law Centre in Whitechapel, then alerted his victim’s sister by sending her a message reading: ‘Come take your sister’s dead body from my flat.’

A second message followed moments later, telling her: ‘Get her out of my flat now before I kick the crap out of her.’

Family members rushed to the flat, but Rahman was nowhere to be found. Police smashed their way in and found Ms Chowdhury lying on the bed.

She had suffered severe head injuries as well as bruising and swelling to her neck and died in The Royal London Hospital three days later.

The pair met while they were both working at the Safeway supermarket in Stratford, east London, in 1999 and enjoyed a turbulent relationship from the start.

They only married in February 2010 because Ms Chowdhury’s terminally ill mother was desperate to see her daughter wed.

The Islamic ceremony took place at the foot of her bed at Newham General Hospital in Plaistow and was never registered in accordance with English law.

Rahman had a history of infidelity but had previously flown into a rage and angrily denied seeing other women when accused by his wife.

But he had in fact spent the night before the killing with his mistress.

‘He had been in a relationship with another woman for several years,’ said prosecutor Gareth Patterson.

‘Clearly, Jasmin’s suspicions hadn’t been near-paranoia, as the  defendant had suggested.’

Her husband gave no comment when he was arrested by police, but in a prepared statement claimed she had been violent towards him and often self-harmed.

Jeremy Benson QC, for Rahman, said his conviction meant his career as a solicitor was now over.

Rahman, previously of (27, Stanliff House) Cassilis Road, Isle of Dogs, denied murder and was convicted.