Man who killed wife and dumped body in bath jailed for life

A HUSBAND who battered his wife to death before dumping her body in a bath of water has been jailed for life.

A judge told Yahya Babiker that the murder had been brutal, premeditated and inexplicable – then ordered him to serve at least 18 years before he can be considered for parole.

CCTV footage, seen by a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh, showed Babiker, 46, in a local DIY superstore buying the cheap claw hammer he used just hours later – as the couple's children slept next door.

Student Randa Kamblawi, 34, was hit at least five times as she lay in bed. Babiker then wrapped her body in a duvet, put her in a bath of water and began an attempt to cover his tracks.

Advocate depute Pino di Emidio, prosecuting, described Babiker's careful selection of the murder weapon as damning and unforgettable evidence.

Babiker returned to the flat in Nicolson Steet,which he shared with Randa, his wife of eight years and smashed her skull.

He tried to claim that his wife had died by accident, saying he had pushed her in the bath, for a joke, and she had slipped and struck her head.

But a jury took less than an hour to find him guilty of the murder on the night of 19-20 October last year.

Sentencing him, judge Lady Stacey told Babiker: "You have been convicted by a jury of the brutal and pre-meditated murder of your wife, who was the mother of your two young children. You have deprived her of her life and you have deprived her children and her family of her society."