Stechford cocaine-user husband tried to murder wife when she 'delayed giving him money', court told

A husband who had "fallen into debt due to his use of cocaine" allegedly tried to kill his wife when she "delayed" giving him money, a court heard.

Sharaz Ali allegedly took a machete and knife to his partner at their home in Stechford and then 'effectively left her to die' as he 'pretended' to call an ambulance, jurors heard.

The 41-year-old is on trial at Birmingham Crown Court where he denies a charge of attempted murder as well as an alternative offence of wounding with intent.

He refutes being responsible for the attack which he claims was committed by an intruder while he was downstairs listening to music on YouTube, the jury was told.

Opening the case, prosecutor Jennifer Knight QC said the victim initially made a call to emergency services at 6.49pm on September 10 last year and was 'clearly very badly injured and in a lot of pain'.

She stated the seriousness of the victim's condition was 'not fully appreciated' by the ambulance service which attended the couple's home in Northcote Road at 8.39pm having received two further calls from her phone.

Ms Knight added: "Paramedics who arrived were let into the house by Sharaz Ali and upstairs in the main bedroom they found his wife lying on the floor between the double bed and the wall and covered in blood, much of it dried. Blood was over her and surrounding her.

"Clearly, she was still very seriously injured but still conscious. Initially when asked what happened she said somebody came into the garden whilst she was outside. That person followed her back into the house and attacked her.

"That in fact, as you will hear, was not true. In due course when she got to hospital she revealed it was her husband. As paramedics worked on her they moved the double bed and found a heavily blood-stained machete underneath the bed."

The woman suffered multiple injuries including a fractured skull, cut to her neck which penetrated to her windpipe, a wound under her armpit while an 8cm blade of a knife had snapped off and lodged itself in her chest which punctured her lung and heart.

The court heard the victim was briefly interviewed while in critical care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Ms Knight said: "She explained her husband used cocaine and just prior to the attack told her he once again owed money to a dealer.

"That was a pretty regular occurrence. She would have given him the money but she delayed doing so and that delay seems to have been the trigger for that attack on her that day."

The court heard Ali was arrested and interviewed during which he said he was listing to music in the living room before he went upstairs and found his wife on the bedroom floor having been attacked. Asked about injuries to his hands he claimed he sustained them at work three days earlier.

The prosecutor said Ali, now of Hermitage Road, Croydon, attacked his wife some time prior to 6.16pm that day when he made the first of multiple calls to 999, all of which he 'abandoned'.

Ms Knight continued: "She describes being stabbed in the chest, she says stabbed to the heart. She describes going in and out of consciousness over a very long period of time before the ambulance comes and describes thinking she was going to die.

"She describes her husband standing in front of her with the broken knife in his hand and her asking him to call for an ambulance and realising he was just pretending but wasn't really doing so because no ambulance was coming. Eventually she was able to make a call herself."

She told the court the couple both worked shifts at the Walkers crisps factory in Leicestershire and that their nine-year marriage had mostly been a 'good one'.

Ms Knight added that Ali's alleged attack on his wife on this particular occasion was driven by 'desperation for money and drugs'.

The trial continues.