By KenMcCormick
Abdirashid Khadar, right, has been jailed for life for murdering his wife Amal Abdi, left
A MAN who murdered his pregnant wife then called 999 to tell the police has been jailed for life.
A jury took just two hours and 40 minutes to convict Abdirashid Khadar, 22, of murdering 21-year-old Amal Abdi today.
The court heard that the illegal immigrant, who had travelled from Somalia to be with his wife in Bristol, strangled and repeatedly stabbed her with three different knives, after she asked for a divorce.
The father-of-one child then left his wife, who was 15 to 16 weeks pregnant, curled up in a pool of blood in their flat before calling the police and telling them: "I've got something to show you."
He told the operator: "I'm kill someone. I'm kill my wife."
Officers found Amal in the living room of the flat she shared with Khadar at Longlands House in Morley Street, Barton Hill, with more than ten stab wounds to her body and neck.
They tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate her but she was pronounced dead at the scene, the jury was told.
Police at Longlands House after Amal Abdi's body was murdered
Khadar, of no fixed address, had denied murdering his wife on July 26 last year but was found guilty after a week-long trial at Bristol Crown Court.
He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years.
Sentencing Khadar, Justice Neil Garnham QC said: "This was a brutal and unprovoked attack on a young woman in her own home. You stabbed her not once but ten times.
"It is plain you attacked her from behind or you carried on stabbing her after she attempted to turn away or after she had fallen to the floor.
"This was an appalling and cowardly attack on a defenceless woman. I have no doubt that you intended to kill her.
"You cut her down and left her dead on the floor of her own sitting room."
The trial heard that Khadar came to the UK from Italy in March 2015 before meeting up with his wife, who had lived in Bristol since 2010.
He and Amal, who had one child together, had previously married in Ethiopia and kept up a long-distance relationship as Khadar could not get the right travel documents.
But the pair, who shared a flat, had a rocky relationship and Amal told the defendant that she "didn't want him any more" on the morning she died.
Khadar later lured Amal to their home, telling her family were visiting and she needed to tidy up, before unleashing a "ferocious" and "frenzied" attack on her.
Justice Garnham told him: "Soon after she entered the flat you set on her with three different knives. You showed no mercy at all.
"The likelihood is that the first knife you used broke as you used it on her. Not content with the injuries you had inflicted, you chose a second knife and stabbed her again.
"It is clear you stabbed this defenceless woman again and again and again.
"It demonstrated the savagery of this attack. It is beyond imaginable what that woman went through as you, her husband, murdered her."
He added: "When you stabbed her you were killing not just her but also your unborn child.
"There is no doubt that you had a difficult journey to this country but that does not provide you with even the beginnings of an excuse for what you did."
Longlands House in Barton Hill
The court heard that after the killing, Khadar washed his hands, leaving Amal's blood on the taps, before putting an extra layer over his blood-stained clothes.
He then walked out of the flat and into the building's lift, adjusted his hair and called the police to tell them what he had done.
When Khadar was taken to the police station, he asked police to kill him after finding out his wife had died. He refused hospital treatment, saying he'd rather die.
During police interviews, he claimed he did not remember the incident.
He made no expression as he was taken down to the cells.
Speaking after the hearing, Amal's auntie, Zahra Ahmed, 46, said: "Amal has gone and she is never coming back. She was a young lady and we really loved her.
"She left a young girl of five, who doesn't know what happened to her mother.
"She had all her future ahead of her.
"This is really difficult and upsetting for all of us."
DCI Mike Williams, of Avon and Somerset Constabulary, said he was pleased with the sentence and described the murder as "appalling".
He said: "My thoughts are with Amal's family.
"At no time has the suspect shown any remorse."