Victim: Reema Ramzan was killed by her boyfriend Aras Hussein in June last year, a court heard

A man decapitated his teenage girlfriend while she was still alive then stabbed himself in the chest, a court heard today.

Aras Hussein, 21, had allegedly blackmailed 18-year-old Reema Ramzan by taking sexual photographs of her and threatening to share them with her family if she broke up with him.

Sheffield Crown Court was told that on June 4 last year, he killed her by cutting off her head with a knife before inflicting stab wounds on himself.

Prosecutor Graham Reeds QC outlined the case against Iraqi-born Hussein, who denies murder and actual bodily harm.

'Bruising into tissue wounds suggest that Reema was still alive as the defendant started to remove her head,' the lawyer said.

'The process of decapitation would require considerable motion with corresponding considerable force which needed to be sustained until all the tissues had been cut through.

'Force would also be needed to restrain the victim who is likely to have been struggling. Severe force would have been needed to cut through the spinal vertebrae with a knife in order to remove the head.'

Mr Reeds told the jury that Hussein was seen naked outside his flat in Sheffield with blood pouring out of his chest, and told emergency workers: 'I don't know why I did it.

'She like me but I raped her. What I did was wrong. I need punishing for it.'

He also allegedly asked the paramedics: 'Why are you helping me? I've murdered someone.'

The lawyer said Hussein was likely to claim he was suffering from diminished responsibility due to schizophrenia at the time of the attack.

Home: The alleged attack took place at Hussein's flat in Sheffield, pictured, on June 4 last year

Investigation: Forensic officers pictures scouring the block of flats at the time of the incident

Mr Reeds said that Miss Ramzan's family disapproved of her relationship with Hussein, who repeatedly came into conflict with her relatives.

On one occasion, the QC said, the defendant was warned by police for taking sexually explicit pictures of his girlfriend and threatening to show them to her family if she ever left him.

In another incident, Miss Ramzan's brother Sohail argued with the defendant after seeing red marks on her neck, but Hussein told him 'he'd do what he liked'.

Mr Reeds said it was known that on the day she died, Miss Ramzan went to Hussein's flat with her passport and a large amount of money.

'She did not tell anyone from her family she was going there,' he said. 'She did not tell anyone why she had her passport and this money with her.'

A neighbour of Hussein's later heard a woman 'screaming for dear life', the prosecutor said.

Horror: Neighbours reported seeing Hussein naked and covered in blood after stabbing himself, jurors heard

The defendant stabbed himself in the chest with a large kitchen knife, removed his blood-stained clothes and went outside, the court heard.

One neighbour who saw him in the car park holding his passport and a wad of money thought he had been shot.

Hussein was calm when he was first arrested, but after he was taken to the nearby Northern General Hospital for treatment he attacked staff trying to help him, Mr Reeds said.

He allegedly assaulted a cardiothoracic surgeon and an anaesthetist as well as police officers who tried to restrain him, biting one of them, before he was injected with a sedative.

Mr Reeds said the prosecution rejected Hussein's likely defence of diminished responsibility.

He said he had 'no history of mental illness', adding: 'He was able to function perfectly well - he held down a job, he lived on his own, he had his own flat and, it's a self-evident truth, he had a girlfriend.'

The lawyer continued: 'The prosecution case is that his behaviour right up until the time of the killing was entirely ordinary. Of course the killing itself was anything but ordinary.

'The prosecution say that his behaviour at the time of the killing is much more likely to be explained by the fact he had a propensity towards violence and his controlling behaviour towards Reema.'