And then he killed her

Every day more cultural enrichment from Religion of Peaceniks:

(Musel-)man cut his sister-in-law’s throat then left her bleeding to death in her children’s arms because he was envious of his successful brother  (Daily Mail)

• Foyez Ahmed, 31, was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in jail after killing Razu Khan in Oldham, Greater Manchester
• Mrs Khan was found fatally injured on the sofa by three of her children who held her hand and tried to revive her
• Ahmed felt he had been ‘treated badly’ by his brother Mohammed Rahman and his wife despite them giving him food and shelter

Boyfriend ‘stabbed older partner then beat her to death with shears in underpass after she refused to have a threesome’

• Tuanjai Sprengel, 43, from Thailand, ‘suffered a number of broken fingers as she tried to defend herself against the fatal blows by Muhammad Shafi’
• Passerby heard woman screaming but dismissed it as a ‘lover’s tiff’
• Pakistani Shafi was on student visa from Islamabad but was allowed to stay
• On evening before death, ‘Tuanjai said Shafi was “controlling” and “jealous”‘

By Larisa Brown/Daily Mail

A jealous and controlling boyfriend brutally battered his partner to death just days after she refused to have a sexual threesome with him and a male friend, a court heard today.

Tuanjai Sprengel, 43, was stabbed with a kitchen knife by Muhammad Shafi then had her skull shattered with a pair of metal shears, which caused brain damage.

Her body was then dumped in an underpass near her home in Berkshire.

Tuanjai Sprengel, 43, left, was brutally battered to death by her ‘jealous’ and ‘controlling’ boyfriend Muhammad Shafi, right, a court heard today

She also suffered a number of broken fingers, caused as the victim tried to defend herself from the brutal blows which rained down on her head.

Jurors were told how Shafi was accused of killing her by smashing her over the head with the pair of metal tinsnips.

Days before her tragic death, Tuk, as she was known, confided in a pal that Shafi had asked her to have a threesome with him and that he had become enraged when she refused.

She had told her friend that one of Shafi’s male friends was staying with the couple and that Shafi had wanted the man to sleep in their bedroom.

Alan Blake, prosecuting, said: ‘Shafi had suggested that he and Tuk should have sex and the friend should join in.

‘She refused and the defendant became angry.’

But Shafi’s male friend told police that although he had slept in their bedroom, he had not shared their bed and there had been no suggestion of a threesome.

Shafi, 28, had married his Thai girlfriend in an Islamic marriage in December last year, the jury at Reading Crown Court was told.

They had sought to register the marriage under UK law in February but it had to be cancelled after the victim’s documents relating to the divorce of her German husband were not in order.

Shafi was on a student visa from Islamabad in Pakistan and ran a business placing students onto UK training courses.

Mother-of-one Tuanjai Sprengel, 43, died from serious head injuries in a subway in Bracknell, Berkshire

He was granted an extension to stay on the grounds of the couple’s serious relationship.

While Ms Sprengel had told friends and family that the pair ‘loved each other’, her cousin Jurairat Buncherd became concerned that it was a ‘marriage of convenience’, allowing Shafi to remain in the country.

The jury of eight women and four men were told that Shafi murdered Tuk and tried to cover his tracks.

Mr Blake told the hearing: ‘The prosecution allege that this defendant – Muhammad Shafi – who is 28 years old, murdered his partner, Tuanjai Sprengel, aged 43 years, in an underpass in Bracknell in the early hours of May 27 this year.

‘He stabbed her in the neck with a kitchen knife but it was not that injury that led to her death.

‘The fatal injuries were caused when the defendant repeatedly bashed her over the back of the head with a pair of metal tin snips.

‘That caused multiple skull fractures and brain damage.

‘Her fingers were bruised and fractured as she protected her head from the blows.

‘He left her in that underpass and returned towards their home address.

‘He deposed of the knife and the metal tin snips in shrubbery near their house. He changed out of his bloodstained clothing and put it in a rucksack,’ added the prosecutor.

‘Later that morning he took that rucksack to a nearby house where he tried to persuade the people there to take possession of it.

‘But they refused and he himself then took the bag himself and disposed of it.’

The jury heard how he arrived at his friend Idress Haider’s home early on Sunday morning and told him ‘I’ve done a very bad thing’ before later confessing that he had ‘hit or killed his wife’.

Mr Haider told police that when he asked Shafi ‘is she dead?’ he replied ‘she must be dead by now, when I left she was gasping’.

The jury heard that police traced the victim to her rented property where they found the defendant.

He was later arrested but answered ‘no comment’ in interview with detectives.

The Thai woman’s body was found dumped in the underpass pictured. A passerby earlier heard screams coming from the victim

However, he did make a short statement via his solicitor.

‘He accepted there was an argument with his partner but he did not know what caused the fatality and he said didn’t intend to cause her any harm,’ Mr Blake said.

Tuk, a mother-of-one had also told the couple’s landlord that they had argued because she had said he was gay.

She told Frank Napier in the days before her death that Shafi had left the house after a row.

‘She reported that Shafi had gone out for the day when Tuk had insinuated that he was homosexual. That caused a row,’ said Mr Blake.

The court heard how, on the evening before Tuk’s death, the couple had gone on a seven hour gambling spree in a local branch of Ladbrokes where they lost around £1,000.

On the same evening, Ms Sprengel had confided to a woman at the Ladbrokes betting shop in Bracknell that Shafi was ‘jealous and controlling’ and stopped her from working.

The jury was shown CCTV footage of Shafi twice going outside to get cash and were told they had been in the bookies from 3pm to 10pm.

‘The staff estimated that they lost £1,000 pounds on the roulette machines,’ said Mr Blake.

The couple got a lift home with a friend of Tuk’s, but were later seen on CCTV heading towards the underpass where Tuk died.

Probe: Police officers pictured at the scene where the 43-year-old mother-of-one was found dead

At around 4.45am the following morning, May 27, a passer-by Charlotte Lenthall walked through the underpass and noticed a couple, which the prosecution said was Tuk and Shafi.

They were sat cross-legged on the floor facing each other.

She heard them talking in a foreign language as she walked through and noticed that the man had a raised voice.

When she walked out of the underpass Miss Lenthall heard a woman scream but dismissed it as a ‘lover’s tiff’.

‘She heard another scream that made her feel uneasy, a second smaller scream,’ said Mr Blake.

‘She continued her journey to work.

‘It was when she returned home that she saw that London Road had been cordoned off and saw the murder reported on the news.’

CCTV then showed Shafi walking out of the underpass just minutes after Miss Lenthall.

Cordon: Police seal off the underpass in Bracknell, Berkshire, where the Thai-born mother was found dead

Later that morning a cyclist, Peter Paige, came across what he thought was a mannequin or a drunk, only to realise he had found a woman’s body.

He raised the alarm with some workmen loading a nearby van and they called police.

Paramedics arrived at the scene and tried to perform CPR on Tuk, only to find a wound on the back of her head which was ‘incompatible with life’.

A post mortem examination revealed that she had died as a result of a severe blunt force trauma to the head.

She had been hit at least nine times in quick succession, and also had wounds to her face as it hit the ground from the force of the blows to the back of her head, as well as the stab wound in her neck.

Police found identity documents in the handbag Tuk had been carrying and went to visit her home, where they found Shafi who said that Tuk had gone to meet a friend.

Evidence: Police pictured moving bags of evidence from the scene in May

‘He was told about the body and was arrested on suspicion of murder,’ said Mr Blake.

‘He made no reply to the caution.’

The defendant, who was wearing a a grey jumper, blue polo short and beige trousers, denies murdering the 43-year-old in a pedestrian subway in Bracknell, Berkshire, on May 27.

The court heard that Shafi admitted causing the death of his partner but said he did not intend to kill or seriously harm her, who he said he loved very much.

He told police he did not know what caused the fatality, and that both parties had the opportunity to leave at any time during the argument.

But Mr Blake argued that the 28-year-old intentionally murdered his girlfriend during an ‘unjustifiable assault’ using weapons from their home stashed in his clothing.

The jury heard that Shafi may have feared the relationship with Tuk was over when he planned her killing.

Mr Blake told the jury: ‘For whatever reason, this defendant acknowledged or foresaw the end of the relationship with Tuk – a development with several consequences he was unable to accept.

‘This defendant is guilty, not of the lesser offence of manslaughter which he readily admits, but the offence of murder of which he is charged.’

Shafi of Basemoors, Bracknell, looked relaxed as he listened to proceedings unfold from the dock.

None of Ms Sprengel’s family from Thailand were in court for the hearing.

The trial continues.