Murder victim wanted to split with lover, court told

Laura, whose body was found stabbed and dumped in a canal allegedly told pal Dougie Tinker that she wanted to speak with Ashtiaq Asghar (18) and break off their relationship.

Mr Tinker (45), a close friend to both of them, told a jury this week how he had allowed the teenage mum to use his phone to call and text Asghar, known as Ash.

“Laura wanted to talk to Ash to end their relationship but to know each other as friends,” Mr Tinker told Sheffield Crown Court.

He said that the last time he had seen her he believed she was heading to meet Asghar at a railway bridge near the canal.

Mr Tinker said that Laura, who had a baby after a brief fling with married near neighbour Ishaq Hussain, realised her relationship with Asghar was “going nowhere.”

The day after Laura’s disappearance, Mr Tinker said, Hussain, known as Zac, and a friend of Laura’s, Faye Williams—who had also had a baby daughter to

Hussain—came to his home and said that they had been together the previous night.

He denied claims raised by lawyers for Hussain that he had allowed Asghar to keep a “commando” knife at his home and visitors to smoke cannabis.

Hussain, of Ferham Road, Rotherham, and Asghar, of Holmes Lane, Holmes, deny murdering Laura between October 8 and October 11 last year.

The prosecution say that Hussain and Asghar killed her after she told both their families of her relationships with them.

It is claimed that Asghar stabbed Laura repeatedly, then pushed her into the canal, where she drowned.

Hussain is accused of providing a decoy by arranging a meeting with Laura’s friend so she went to the canal alone.

Student Laura gave birth to a daughter in June last year, but Hussain is said to have failed to acknowledge the child as his own or offer any support.

This allegedly led to friction between Laura and her family and Hussain, resulting last October in Laura storming round to Hussain’s house and tellin

The trial continues.