Pakistani man pleads guilty to killing ‘wife’s lover’

A Pakistani man has pleaded guilty to killing a man he suspected of having an affair with his wife.

Shahzad Hussain, aged 35, with a last address at Woodland Avenue, Mosney, Co Meath, was previously jailed for life for murdering his wife’s cousin and his own distant relative Muhammad Arif, 32.

He was also sentenced to seven years for seriously injuring his wife Rashida Bibi Haider, 44, and two years for assaulting her on January 6, 2011, at Mr Arif’s apartment in Fitzwilliam Court, Dyer St, Drogheda, Co Louth. He had denied the charges.

However, in July 2014, the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed his murder conviction and ordered a retrial after a three-judge court found there was a “very real risk of injustice” in the manner in which the central question of provocation was explained to the jury by the trial judge.

Yesterday, Shane Costelloe, prosecuting, told the Central Criminal Court that in circumstances where the court of appeal had directed a retrial, he had been instructed by the DPP that Hussain could be arraigned on count one. Hussain then pleaded not guilty to the murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Arif.

Mr Costelloe told the court that this plea “meets the case in the circumstances.”

The court previously heard evidence that all three, who were from Pakistan, had lived together in Fitzwilliam Court.

However, difficulties arose in the arranged marriage of Ms Haider and the accused after he began to suspect that she was having an affair with her cousin. Both husband and wife moved out separately in December, 2010.

Dominic McGinn, defending, told Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan “there was a lot of evidence to go through” and she remanded Mr Hussain in custody until April 4 for sentencing.

The court heard Hussain was serving a sentence on the other two counts on the indictment “as those were not overturned by the court of appeal.”

Mr McGinn told Ms Justice Heneghan his client has been in custody for the last five years during which he has been in four prisons. He asked for a governor report from each of those.