Police release photographs of pair who murdered Leeds mother-of-four Sinead Wooding

THESE are the first photographs of  a man and his friend who face life sentences for  murdering  his wife before dumping her body in woodland in Leeds and setting it alight.
Guilty of murder: Akshar Ali and Yasmin AhmedGuilty of murder: Akshar Ali and Yasmin Ahmed
Guilty of murder: Akshar Ali and Yasmin Ahmed

A Leeds Crown Court jury has unanimously convicted Akshar Ali, 27, and Yasmin Ahmed, also 27, of murdering 26-year-old mother-of-four Sinead Wooding at Ahmed's home in

Reginald Mount, Potternewton, Leeds, before disposing of her body in woods near a lane in Alwoodley.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The jury unanimously found Vicky Briggs, 25, of Throstle Road, Middleton, guilty of assisting an offender by helping clean up and burn material after the murder.

Sinead WoodingSinead Wooding
Sinead Wooding

Akshar Ali’s mother Aktahr Bi, 45, of Kings Road, Hyde Park, was found not guilty of assisting an offender. The prosecution had alleged she had made arrangements to dispose of Miss Wooding’s corpse.

His brother Asim Ali, 21, of Kings Road, Hyde Park, was found not guilty of assisting an offender. The prosecution had alleged he had procured a vehicle and assisted in the disposal and burning of her body.

Aktahr Bi and Asim Ali wept in the dock before being told they were free to go.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Justice Langstaff said Akshar Ali, Yasmin Ahmed and Vicky Briggs were due to be sentenced at 10.30am tomorrow. (Weds Jan 17)

Sinead WoodingSinead Wooding
Sinead Wooding

The jury had been considering verdicts since last Wednesday lunchtime.

The murder trial jury was told Miss Wooding’s body was kept in the cellar at Ahmed's home for two days before being transported to woodland near a lane in Alwoodley, north Leeds, where it was set on fire.

A pathologist’s examination showed Miss Wooding had been attacked with a hammer and stabbed six times.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The body had been wrapped in a duvet and trussed up with wire before being doused with petrol.

The smouldering remains were discovered on Stairfoot Lane at about 9am on Sunday 14 May by students out for a run in the area.

The court had heard Miss Wooding and Ali, who lived at Scott Hall Road, Potternewton, had argued after drinking during a party at the house on Thursday May 11.

Prosecutor Nicholas Campbell QC said Miss Wooding had started to convert to the Islamic faith and changed her name to Zakirah before she met Akshar Ali, who worked on a food stall at Leeds indoor market.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The court heard the couple signed a marriage contract after an Islamic Nikah ceremony in February 2015.

Mr Campbell said it was a “volatile” and sometimes violent relationship and that Miss Wooding had continued to visit a female friend and her family after he had “forbidden” her from visiting.

Mr Campbell said Miss Wooding had been stabbed several times and struck repeatedly about the head. A Home Office pathologist concluded several skull fractures were caused by at least one claw hammer.

Mr Campbell said a blood stain on the cellar floor along with numerous blood spots on walls matched Miss Wooding’s DNA.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The jury had heard a neighbour of Yasm,in Ahmed saw a man and a woman carrying what appeared to a body out of a house and put it in the boot of a car.

Mr Campbell told the jury that in the early hours of Sunday, May 14, student Lydia Gunning, a neighbour on Reginald Mount, was woken by the sound of car doors being opened and closed and saw a Golf car parked up before being reversed to the back gate at Yasmin Ahmed’s home at Reginald Mount.

She then saw two people come out of the back entrance of the property.

Related topics: