Sinead Wooding: Husband sentenced to 22 years for murder

Akshar Ali (left) and Yasmin Ahmed (right) were found guilty of murdering Sinead Wooding

A "woman beater" who stabbed his wife and bludgeoned her with hammer before setting her body alight has been jailed for 22 years.

Sinead Wooding, 26, was found dumped in woodland outside Leeds on 14 May.

Akshar Ali, 27, stabbed the mother-of-four six times alongside accomplice Yasmin Ahmed, who was also jailed for 22 years.

The investigating officer said it "was the most horrific and brutal attack" he had seen in almost three decades.

The pair had denied murder but were convicted after a trial at Leeds Crown Court.

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Vicky Briggs, 25, of Throstle Road, Middleton was sentenced to four years after being found guilty of assisting an offender by helping to clean up and burn material following the murder.

Ms Wooding was attacked at Ahmed's home in Reginald Mount, Potternewton.

Ms Wooding's family said in a statement: "Sinead's four children are having to grow up without their mum and as they get older will have to deal with knowing that their father killed their mum. No child should have to deal with that.

"No amount of time in prison is ever going to bring Sinead back and it will never be long enough. We will never forgive them for what they have done."

Det Ch Insp Stuart Spencer said it "was the most horrific and brutal attack that I have ever encountered in my 28 years in policing".

The jury was shown CCTV film of a VW car carrying Sinead Wooding's body

Attempts were made to cover up the scene of Ms Wooding's murder, the court heard

During the trial, the court heard how Ms Wooding was "struck while kneeling" with blood spots being found on the cellar wall.

The room had been swept and walls wiped down, and attempts were made to cover up a large bloodstain in the centre of the floor.

A student who lived next door to Ahmed told the court she saw a man and a woman carrying "what appeared to be a body" wrapped in a covering and placed in the boot of a Volkswagen car on the morning of 14 May.

Ms Wooding's remains were later found by joggers at Alwoodley Crags.

Ali, of Scott Hall Road, Leeds, was described during the trial as a "woman beater" who had badgered another woman for sex days before his wife's murder.

Sinead Wooding's body was discovered by joggers near Alwoodley Crags car park in Stairfoot Lane

Duncan Ritchie of the Crown Prosecution Service said: "Sinead Wooding was killed with brutal ferocity.

"Calculated plans were made to destroy the evidence of this dreadful crime, and her body was stored for over two days in a cellar before being transported in a borrowed vehicle under cover of darkness to Adel Woods, near Leeds. There it was partially destroyed by fire.

"Analysis of the blood spatter patterns indicated that Sinead Wooding had been killed in a ferocious attack involving at least two weapons."

It emerged in court that Ms Wooding had made a 999 call to West Yorkshire Police on 10 May.

The force later referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in June.

The IOPC had completed its investigation into the police actions prior to Ms Wooding's death and at the end of the trial it would update her family, a spokesman said.

"Once all interested parties have been informed we will publish our findings", the statement added.