A man who murdered his wife by setting her on fire following a row has been handed a life sentence.
Muhammad Hammad attempted to conceal his crime, claiming that Nazia Akhtar had set herself alight in their home in Birmingham.
He maintained that he had fearlessly tried to save her, setting himself on fire in the process, but a jury at Birmingham Crown Court rejected his account of the events.
“NaziA was very quickly engulfed in flames with her upper body becoming a fireball.”
The judge said the defendant had set himself alight after pouring spirit over his own head, intending to make the incident look like a “terrible accident that engulfed you both”.
However, Judge Inman accepted that the attack had not been foreplanned.
The 30-year-old was convicted of murder at Birmingham Crown Court and was ordered to spend at least 25 years in prison before being considered for release.
Judge Melbourne Inman said: “Nazia was only 31 when she died.
“She had much of her adult life before her.
“She enjoyed life and her work as a care assistant.
“She had a loving family whose lives have been shattered by the loss of a much loved daughter and sister and I have read moving statements from her family.
“At about 9.30pm on April 25 last year you and Nazia were a home together at the flat where you lived.
“You deliberately threw a significant quantity of white spirit over Nazia’s clothes and then deliberately set fire to her clothes with a naked flame.
“It is difficult to think of a more wicked attempt to conceal a crime.”
“The effect on her was that Nazia was very quickly engulfed in flames with her upper body becoming a fireball.”
He added: “It is difficult to think of a more wicked attempt to conceal a crime.”
He said: “Nazia suffered terribly before she died.
“She suffered full thickness burns to 60 per cent of her body.
“Because of her suffering she was placed in a coma for most of the two months before she died.”
