Wife jailed for killing husband

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A mother who stabbed and beat her husband to death after she suffered "frightening" abuse has been jailed.

Mother-of-five Rina Begum, 33, attacked husband Anhar Miah with a knife, rolling pin and hammer at their home in East Ham, east London, last April.

Mr Miah, 37, had physically abused her and kept Begum and her children in "slum squalor", the Old Bailey heard.

She was found guilty of manslaughter by provocation and sentenced to four years in prison.

Mr Miah suffered more than 100 injuries in what prosecutor Michael Worsley QC called "a frenzied, sustained, ferocious assault".

After Mr Miah's death, police found their flat littered with dead mice and a repulsive stench, the court was told.

'Degraded'

Begum initially denied knowing anything about what had happened to her husband. She later told police that she had suffered mental and physical abuse at his hands and feared for her life.

Sentencing, Judge Richard Hone told her: "I accept that over a number of years the relationship with your husband had been deeply unhappy and indeed from time-to-time frightening."

He added: "I am wholly satisfied that you did feel degraded and lost self-esteem."

The attack "exemplified the degree of loss of control and the build-up of the provocation which led to this explosive violence", the judge said.

"But you must appreciate the harm and damage you have done to your five children and also to the family of Anhar."