Girlfriend 'killed pregnant wife'

Sana Ali was 11 weeks pregnant

A pregnant teenager was stabbed to death in her bedroom in a ferocious and sustained attack by her husband's secret lover, a court heard.

Harmohinder Kaur Sanghera, of Solihull, West Midlands, stabbed her boyfriend's wife in "jealousy and desperation", Manchester Crown Court heard.

Sana Ali, 17, of Bury, Greater Manchester, received 42 wounds.

The court heard Ms Sanghera, who denies murder, had been having an affair with Mrs Ali's husband Sair since July 2005.

Mr Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, told the court that the relationship continued despite the Alis' arranged marriage in December last year.

Stabbed in stomach

Mr Wright said Mrs Ali's murderer had deliberately lifted her top and stabbed her in her abdomen at her Throstle Grove home. She was 11 weeks pregnant.

"The deeply personal element points unhappily, and unequivocally, to the identity of the killer being the defendant," he said.

He said the relationship between Mr Ali and Ms Sanghera, a 23-year-old dentistry student in Birmingham, ended after the attack in May this year.

Mrs Ali was born in Pakistan and had been considered to marry her cousin who was also a Shia Muslim, the court heard.

This was borne of jealousy and desperation Peter Wright QC Prosecuting

Mr Ali and Ms Sanghera, a Sikh known as Mindy, started a relationship in 2005, but hid it from his parents.

Mr Wright said: "He did not tell the defendant he was engaged to be married.

"As the relationship became more serious Sair used religion as a pretence for a reason why it could not last."

In December 2006 when Mr Ali got married Ms Sanghera became suspicious and Mr Ali told her he was engaged.

In March Mr Ali told her his wife was pregnant, but Ms Sanghera said she would become his second wife.

The pair had a muta marriage ceremony - a temporary arrangement which means they could live as husband and wife for a specified time.

'Alive and well'

The time limit ran out on 16 May - five days after Mrs Ali was killed.

On 10 May Ms Sanghera told a friend she was going to end the relationship and tell Mrs Ali about their affair.

When arrested, Ms Sanghera told police Mrs Ali let her in after telling her she was an ex-girlfriend of her husband and had sent a teddy bear to him.

Ms Sanghera said Mrs Ali was "alive and well, if not a little upset" when she left the house.

Mr Wright said: "It is the Crown's case that this was no murder by a random psychopath who happened to pass after Sanghera left.

"This was borne of jealousy and desperation."

The case continues.