A mother-of-four from Birmingham has been left permanently brain-damaged and remains in a coma nearly six months after her husband allegedly tried to murder her, a court has heard.
Madia Bano, 25, suffered a wound above her ear that fractured her skull and penetrated nine centimetres into her brain, a jury was told at Birmingham Crown Court.
Her husband, Amir Khan, 25, is accused of stabbing her before calling emergency services and claiming she fell at their home in Villa Road, Lozells, last November.
Prosecution Case
Opening the case on Monday, April 27, Sally Howes KC, prosecuting, said Khan made an emergency call at 10.32pm on Saturday, November 1, stating his wife had fallen ten minutes earlier. He told the operator he could not wake her and had put her in bed, mentioning a little blood and fat from the right side of her head.
A CT scan at the hospital revealed a penetrating wound to the right side of Ms Bano's skull, passing through the right side of her brain. The injury was consistent with being inflicted by a sharp, slim-bladed implement with a sharp point, using severe force.
Ms Howes said the injury caused irreversible and permanent brain damage, considered medically life-threatening and life-changing, with a significantly increased risk of early death. Ms Bano remains in a coma to this day. The implement used has never been recovered.
Background
The couple had four children together and lived in a small property behind a takeaway on Villa Road, as well as at Ms Bano's parental address in Alum Rock. Khan, a Pakistani national, came to the attention of immigration officers in 2017, claiming he entered the UK concealed in the back of a lorry a few weeks earlier. His asylum claim was refused, but he was later granted leave to remain until March this year on grounds of family/private life. Prosecutors said he is now an overstayer.
Khan was arrested at the hospital at 2.40am on November 2 and answered 'no comment' to questions in a police interview.
Medical Evidence
The court heard that parts of Ms Bano's brain are dead, and her injury typically results in a condition called Locked-in plus syndrome. An independent medical expert concluded she would be severely disabled for the rest of her life, with a high level of dependency.
Ms Howes said: "The circumstantial evidence supported by the timings and CCTV footage leads to one irresistible conclusion - the person who carried out this attack on Ms Bano was her husband Amir Khan."
She urged the jury not to speculate on motive, stating: "Motive is for the crime novel and TV thriller. The law doesn't require a motive. What the law does require is intent to kill at the time of the unlawful attack, the stabbing."
She added that a stab to the head with severe force sufficient to pass through the skull bone and into the brain is accompanied by nothing less than an intent to kill. "It's the Crown's case that Amir Khan intended that injury to be life-ending," she said.
Khan denies attempted murder and an alternative charge of wounding with intent. The trial continues.
