Man sent to secure psychiatric hospital after killing his wife of 27 years

A man who killed his wife of 27 years during a ‘state of mental malfunction’ is being sent to a secure psychiatric facility after pleading guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.

In March, a murder investigation was launched in Slough after a woman in Upton Lea died in hospital.

Officers were called to Rochfords Gardens just before 3pm on February 14 where they discovered the woman, 53-year-old Brigitta Rasuli, in life-threatening condition.

She had discolouration on her neck and was unresponsive when ambulances arrived. It was learned that she had been suffocated.

Brigitta was taken to Wexham Park Hospital but was in a coma. She had sustained brain damage. Her condition did not improve, and she died about a fortnight later on March 1.

Her husband, Samir Rasuli, 58, was charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty to this.

Later, the charge was brought down to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, to which Rasuli pleaded guilty.

At a sentencing hearing yesterday (Thursday), the court heard that Mr Rasuli was suffering from severe mental health problems – paranoid delusions and obsessions.

The court heard he was fixated on the idea that his wife was being unfaithful to him. He went so far as to install cameras around their home to try to catch her.

He was also convinced that Brigitta and the suspected ‘other man’ were talking about him and listening in on him around his home. He was also hearing voices.

The court heard these delusional obsessions had been going on for more than 10 years, since 2014 – and ‘it was not the case that he had done nothing’ – he had sought treatment for his condition. Indeed, having been waiting for help from the NHS for a while, Rasuli had recently switched to private practice to speed up the process.

His condition varied in severity over 10 years, and at the time of Brigitta’s attack, Rasuli was ‘in the throes of it,’ noted Judge Amjad Nawaz, presiding.

Rasuli was ‘totally detached from reality’ and mental health professionals could not bring him out of his delusion, the court heard.

“He could not let go of the concept of infidelity that he [invented] in his own mind,” said Judge Nawaz.

On the day Brigitta was killed, it was Rasuli who called emergency services, telling them: “I just killed my wife.”

He told emergency services that the couple had argued and Rasuli ‘lost it’. He remembered ‘jumping on her’.

Judge Nawaz noted that Rasuli’s mental health disorder was ‘chronic and severe, profound and enduring.’

He had ‘significantly altered perceptions and cognition’ and was ‘in a state of malfunction.’

There was ‘compelling evidence’ that Rasuli’s mental function had disintegrated and was ‘substantially impaired’.

Four experts from local forensic mental health services agreed that Rasuli showed ‘all the symptoms of diminished responsibility.’

As such, his degree of responsibility for this crime is ‘low’, concluded Judge Nawaz.

“It’s a tragic case for everybody,” he said. “For you [Mr Rasuli], for your sons, for your wife.”

What made it even more tragic, he added, was that Rasuli’s first treatment appointment was due just days after the attack on Brigitta.

Rasuli’s remorse and guilty plea count as mitigation, Judge Nawaz noted, but the seriousness of asphyxiation makes it worse.

The judge had to consider Rasuli’s level of dangerousness when making a ruling – and he concluded that he is not dangerous, as long as he gets help.

His actions that day are of ‘such a nature and degree as to require immediate treatment,’ said Judge Nawaz.

As such, the sentence is a section 37 hospital order, used instead of a prison sentence when help is required. Judge Nawaz said this was ‘wholly appropriate’ given the evidence.

Rasuli will be staying in a medium security psychiatric unit, to be discharged when deemed right by his doctors. Judge Nawaz said: “[Then you will] rejoin your family and pick up your life as best you can.”