A 23-year-old man who was sentenced to life imprisonment for strangling his 41-year-old stepmother will not stand trial on separate charges relating to indecent images of children.
Abdul Sami received a life sentence with a minimum term of 14 years and 91 days in March after being convicted of murdering Rizwana Kousar at the family’s residence on Kensington Street in Girlington, Bradford, during August 2023.
Sami appeared via video link from HMP Leeds to Bradford Crown Court on Friday for a subsequent hearing concerning three counts of making indecent images of children.
The allegations also originated from August 2023 and involved possession of indecent material classified in Categories A, B and C.
The prosecution, led by John Batchelor, informed the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Rose, that the Crown had decided to offer no evidence following a thorough review of the available material.
Judge Rose ordered not guilty verdicts to be entered on all three charges, meaning the scheduled trial would no longer proceed.
During sentencing proceedings in March, the Honourable Mr Justice Turner clarified that the Parole Board would determine whether Sami could safely be released once the minimum term had been served.
Ms Kousar passed away in August 2023, several days after being discovered unconscious at the home she shared with her husband and his son Sami.
Sami faced trial at Bradford Crown Court at the conclusion of February.
He denied the murder accusation, but the jury required under three and a half hours to reach a unanimous guilty verdict.
Prosecutor Kama Melly KC outlined how Sami contacted the emergency services shortly before noon on August 15, 2023, reporting that he had discovered his stepmother partially submerged in a bathtub with her head underwater.
He was instructed to remove her and commence cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Upon arriving at the property, paramedics observed a red mark across the front of the woman’s neck.
The victim never recovered consciousness and was declared deceased in hospital two days subsequently.
Sami, whose address was listed as Mannheim Road in Bradford, contested the murder charge and asserted that any mark on her neck had been sustained when he removed her traditional headscarf prior to performing CPR.
Following examination of the defendant’s mobile phone, police discovered he had accessed websites concerning inheritance matters at the end of May 2023.
He had searched for information regarding whether a killer could inherit from their victim’s estate and had also visited pages relating to stepchild inheritance rights.
On the day of the incident, he searched for details about survival prospects when the brain is deprived of oxygen.
Sami informed police that certain searches related to his biological mother, who had died in 2019, while others resulted from content viewed on television.
The court received detailed pathological evidence regarding injuries to the deceased’s neck, including tiny haemorrhages consistent with 10 to 30 seconds of forceful, uninterrupted pressure applied to the neck.
In a victim impact statement presented by prosecutor John Batchelor, Ms Kousar’s sister-in-law described her as being deeply cherished by all who knew her.
She stated that her absence was impossible to comprehend and that her passing had affected the family every single day and would continue to do so indefinitely.
The thought of Rizwana’s final moments was described as horrifying, and it was submitted that Sami had repeatedly lied in an attempt to conceal his actions.
The statement indicated that he had attempted to create the appearance of an accident and had displayed no genuine remorse.
She was described as having a pure heart and an optimistic perspective on life, consistently seeking the best in others.
She had considerable reason to continue living, and he had stripped all of that away.