CPS apology over woman's murder

Sabina Akhtar was stabbed to death

The Crown Prosecution Service is to apologise to the family of a woman who was murdered by her cheating husband.

Malik Mannan, 36, was found guilty of stabbing Sabina Akhtar, 26, to death at their home in Longsight, Manchester, in September last year.

She had earlier reported him to police for threatening to kill her. Mannan was ordered to stay away from Ms Akhtar, but repeatedly breached his bail.

The CPS said it was "wrong" not to charge Mannan earlier.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement following the verdict: "The CPS has thoroughly investigated the matter and we accept that the wrong decision was made not to charge Mr Mannan at an earlier stage.

Disciplinary procedures

"Sabina Akhtar's family has been contacted and a meeting is being arranged at which the CPS will apologise to them for the way the case was handled.

"The CPS treats incidents of domestic violence extremely seriously and we will work hard to bring offenders to justice.

"We accept that we did not meet the expected standards in the earlier hearing of this case.

"We have dealt with this through our disciplinary procedures and have taken steps to prevent this happening again."

Malik Mannan repeatedly breached his bail conditions

Manchester Crown Court heard the couple had an arranged marriage in 2003.

Ms Akhtar discovered her divorcee husband was a confirmed gambler and also had a long-standing mistress with whom he had two young children.

Prosecutor Paul Reid QC said Mrs Akhtar contacted police two months before her death and told them her husband had assaulted her 25 times.

The jury heard that he would squeeze her windpipe when they were arguing and made at least three threats to kill her.

Mannan was arrested for breach of his bail conditions four days before he killed her but he was released and continued harassing her.

In the last known conversation she had, on the night of July 11, she told her aunt that she was scared of her husband and what he might do to her in the future.

Mannan made arrangements to flee to Bangladesh following the murder but was arrested by police on 12 September last year.

He will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Friday.