Seven Kings man who throttled girlfriend when she tried to break up with him, loses appeal

Shabbir Ahmad, 43, of Felbrigge Road, terrified Bilkish Kidia, telling her he wanted to kill her when she tried to end their short relationship.

He pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm at Snaresbrook Crown Court in June and was later sentenced to two years in jail.

His lawyers argued unsuccessfully that the sentence was too long and appealed for “mercy” to be shown due to serious illness in Ahmad’s family.

The Court of Appeal heard Ahmad had only been seeing Miss Kidia for about six weeks in March when he grabbed her by the throat, saying: “I think I’m going to have to kill you”, after she tried to end the relationship.

She fell unconscious and came round, when she was told: “I nearly killed you, but I let you live.”

Ahmad, who has struggled with mental problems in the past, refused to let her leave before finally calling a taxi at about 5am the following morning.

Sentencing him, the crown court judge said the attack was not an isolated incident, and that Ahmad had assaulted women on at least three occasions.

He was a “dangerous man”, who was not at the time of his sentencing, suffering from any mental illness.

Rejecting the appeal, Judge Brian Barker said: “Having considered the extent to which the offence was aggravated, this court is not persuaded that a sentence of some two years’ imprisonment, after reduction for guilty plea, was manifestly excessive.

“The lack of remorse which was noted by the author of the pre-sentence report is undoubtedly a feature of the appellant’s attitude to his offending.”