Jealous Tesco worker murdered lover and cut up her body with circular saw

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:29 PM on 24th November 2009

A jealous boyfriend murdered his lover and cut up her body with a circular saw after she started internet dating, a court head today.

Jamal Bakhit, 25, stabbed Rahmona Ahmedin, 23, to death at her home when she tried to end their four-year relationship.

The former criminology student then packed her dismembered body into two suitcases and dumped them beside the A1301 in Hinxton near the border between Essex and Cambridgeshire.

Rahmona Ahmedin's body was packed into suitcases by Jamal Bakhit (right)

Swedish-raised Miss Ahmedin, of Islington, north London, had been seeing up to three different men in the months before her death.

She had also fallen pregnant but had a termination against the wishes of Bakhit, who wanted to keep the child.

Bakhit, who was jailed for life after being convicted of murder, played the part of the concerned boyfriend when he reported her missing to Islington police station.

He claimed he last saw Ethiopian-born Miss Ahmedin alive when she travelled to Bristol on June 6 last year to visit a friend.

The Tesco worker even sent text messages on her mobile phone and used her bank card to make it look like she was still alive.

But a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court took just an hour-and-a-half hour to convict him of murder following a three-week trial.

Bakhit showed no emotion as he was later ordered to spent at least 20 years behind bars.

Jurors heard the victim's body was found by horrified truckers Philip Lear and Derek Lumley in the early hours of June 18 last year.

Mr Lear and Mr Lumley - who were sleeping in their cabs after parking up at the truck stop - were awoken by Miss Ahmedin's burning corpse which passing motorists mistook for a bonfire.

Firefighters extinguished the flames by splashing the body with handfuls of water to disturb the crime scene as little as possible.

Signs of insect life in the charred, dissected corpse indicated Bakhit had stowed Miss Ahmedin for several days before she was torched.

Tests also found Miss Ahmedin had been doused in petrol.

A postmortem revealed slightly built 5ft-tall Miss Ahmedin had also suffered a defensive stab wound to her right hand as she desperately fended off Bakhit's blade.

Pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary identified the cause of death as a stab wound to the chest which was likely to have caused a prolonged agonising death.

'A stab of that kind would not be expected to cause a particularly rapid death,' he said.

Bakhit had been captured on CCTV at Birchanger Green Services - just a few miles from the Hinxton layby - in his VW Golf about an hour before the discovery of Miss Ahmedin's body.

The African, who had taken over a launderette in Fulham, west London, admitted driving along the M11 but claimed he was travelling to Colchester, Essex, to recruit a worker for his business.

Paul Purnell QC, defending Bakhit, tried to convince the jury Bakhit was 'a suspect' rather than 'the suspect' with all the men in her life.

'She was in contact with people she had met through the [dating] website who were engaged in physical, sexual contact with her and who had visited her flat,' said the barrister.

Detective Constable Stuart Brown, who filed Miss Ahmedin's missing person report, described Bakhit as 'calm and calculated' when he reported her disappearance.

The officer told the court: 'It was just his demeanour - the fact he seemed to be making a report as if he already knew where the report was going.'

Miss Ahmedin's friends Brenda Lukwago and Zelia Vanderpuije desperately tried to contact Miss Ahmedin in the days after her disappearance.

They demanded Bakhit let them search her flat on the Peabody Estate for clues but Bakhit claimed there was no electricity and the pair were left to grope around in the dark.

A police search later uncovered a knife wrapped in plastic on a kitchen work top and Miss Ahmedin's belongings such as her purse, handbag and make-up bag.

Detectives never discovered the cutting tool used to slice Miss Ahmedin's body into three pieces.

Bakhit, of Fulham, west London, denied murder.