Dalya Saeed is accused of attacking her ex-husband with a carving knife and cutting open his stomach

A mother tried to disembowel her ex-husband with a carving knife before hitting him over the head with a pepper grinder, a court has heard.

Dalya Saeed has gone on trial for the alleged attack on Bilal Mir in which she is said to have cut open his stomach and pulled on his intestines.

She denies attempted murder, claiming she was defending herself after her ex-husband raped and attacked her.

He insists they had consensual sex before she stabbed him.

Birmingham Crown Court heard Mr Mir, 34, came to Britain on a student visa and he and Saeed met working at a restaurant in the West Midlands.

The couple had a daughter but split up in 2013 and he then remarried, causing Saeed to fear he would take their daughter to Pakistan.

The court heard that the estranged couple met up in October last year after Saeed, 31, asked Mr Mir to come to her house in Moseley, Birmingham to talk about their daughter.

Taxi driver Mr Mir said they had consensual sex after he arrived before talking about their daughter.

He told the jury: 'She started to kiss my lips, my neck and my chest and then all of a sudden, within a blink of an eye, she stabbed me twice in the belly.

'I do not know whether the knife was under the bed or in her robe. I said to her, "What have you done?" She then stood up and stabbed me again.

'I grabbed the knife from her. When I grabbed the knife my intestines were out. She was trying to hold on to my intestines and pull them.

'She pulled part of them off. I threw the knife behind a sofa and held the rest of them in my belly.'

Mr Mir said he then tried to get out of the flat but claimed Saeed pushed the door closed and then started to hit him on the head with a pepper grinder.

He said he eventually managed to get out and shouted for help, but the attack allegedly continued until he managed to get into the entrance of another property.

Saeed is said to have asked Bilal Mir to come to her home before they had sex and she attacked him

Paul Western, prosecuting, said Mr Mir was later treated for a number of injuries. Those he suffered to his abdomen were described as 'life threatening'.

Mr Western added: 'The violence used by Dalya Saeed was without justification.

'The clearest evidence of the defendant's intention to kill Bilal Mir is that she ripped or possibly cut part of his intestines from his body, having cut open his abdomen. That alone could have killed him.