HUSBAND WHO PAID DRUG ADDICT £1,000 TO KILL HIS WIFE CONVICTED FOR MURDER

A man who paid a drug addict just £1,000 to kill his wife has been convicted of her murder.

Mum of two Amina Bibi was stabbed at least 70 times in a frenzied attack at the couple's east London flat.

Her 11-year-old son found her dying in a pool of blood when he returned to his home after forgetting his homework. She was murdered at 8.30am in September last year.

Husband Mohamed Ali, 65 was heavily in debt and having an affair with his sister in law in Pakistan when he approached druggie Frederick Best, 47.

Mrs Bibi had significant savings in the house and officers believe both factors could have been a motive for Ali to have his wife murdered.

Ali did the school run to give himself an alibi but had already given a key to the flat to Best.

He was disturbed by the 11-year-old after the stabbing and fled. Mrs Bibi, 43, who had been married 14 years was stabbed more than 70 times and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Best claimed he was offered £1,000 to burgle the flat but had entered to find Mrs Bibi's body. Ali denied he was having an affair.

But police identified Ali on CCTV speaking with another man outside the flat prior to the murder taking place.

Ali knew Best from when he owned a shop in Woodgrange Road, Forest Gate in the early 1990s. Best used to hang around the shop and Ali knew that Best had a drugs habit.

They lost touch but met some 15 years later in 2013 by chance and swapped numbers. It was then that police believe Ali hatched a plan to have his wife killed by Best.

The crack cocaine addict claimed in interview that he was paid £1,000 to burgle Ali's flat. He said that he went into the address to carry out the fake burglary and found her lying on the floor covered in blood. He alleged that someone had attacked her before he entered.

But Ali, 65 of George Carver House, Station Road, was convicted of murder at Woolwich Crown Court along with Best, 47 of Kebble Terrace, also Forest gate. They will be sentenced at a later date.

Detective Chief Inspector Dave Whellams, of the Homicide and Major Crime Command, said: "This was a cold and calculated act planned and devised by Mohamed Ali to have the mother of his two sons killed.

"Although Ali played the part of a loving and concerned husband and father, his story soon began to unravel.

"I only hope that over time the memory of it will fade in the minds of the children and that they will be able to overcome this tragic and brutal incident."