Nigerian businessman jailed for stab attack on his sleeping wife after she had fling

Jailed: Abegunde stabbed his wife over affair after going through her mobile phone (Photo: Mirror)

By Mirror

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND: A Nigerian businessman who stabbed his cheating wife repeatedly with a kitchen knife while their young sons were downstairs has been jailed for 12 years.

Oluwabusayo Abegunde, 38, had gone through wife Esther's phone messages and pictures and discovered she had been having an affair with another man.

Esther, 33, said the marriage was over and moved into the spare room, but Abegunde attacked her in a fit of rage as she slept.

He stabbed her in the chest and arm and punctured her left lung, according to the Manchester Evening News.

As she began to bleed to death Abegunde only agreed to call an ambulance after making her promise she would tell police she had caused the wounds herself.

He also offered to kill himself, but only made a small cut in his own chest with the knife before emergency services arrived.

Esther survived and a few days later told police the truth following the attack on February 16 last year.

The court heard Abegunde, who runs businesses in Nigeria, had been left "humiliated" by his wife of 10 years’ infidelity and sought revenge when she told him the marriage was over.

The couple, of Hollybank in Droylsden, Greater Manchester, have two sons, aged eight and four.

Judge Honourable Mr Justice Kenneth Parker told Abegunde: “An attack of this nature upon a young woman and mother would cause psychological harm in the short and possible longer term.

“She probably thought at one point that the children were going to be left as orphans, causing further anguish.

“You paid no heed to the fact your children could have been confronted with the truly horrific sight of a grievously injured mother.

“The risk was obvious that she could die but you carried on and are fortunate indeed that she did not die and you are not facing a charge of murder.”

Abegunde, said to have been a respected member of Manchester’s Nigerian community, was found not guilty of attempted murder at an earlier trial.

But the jury at Manchester crown court found him guilty of grievous bodily harm and he was jailed for 12 years.