A failed Pakistani asylum seeker has admitted murdering his two-year-old daughter, almost severing her head, in an alleged revenge act to “punish” his wife.

Sohail A., 34, began his trial in a Hamburg court this Wednesday, accused of violently terrorising his wife, 32, and their two children before allegedly killing his tiny daughter Ayesha in October last year.

The couple was married according to Shariah and the union is not recognised under German law, the Hamburger Morgenpost reports.

According to the indictment, Sohail was angered because his wife did not want her daughter returned to Pakistan, and when she left to report him for making death threats, he killed their daughter in a fit of rage.

The prosecution also accuses Sohail of several attacks on his five-year-old stepson, including throttling him, as well as beating his partner, in the years before the killing.

Sohail’s defence lawyer read a statement to the court on Wednesday morning, admitting the killing but denying the alleged motive.

Sohail was in Germany despite his asylum application having been rejected six years ago.

His asylum request was rejected in 2012, but he was never deported. https://t.co/y00dM6PrcJ — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 27, 2017

His statement said: “The prosecution’s assumption that I acted out of anger over my wife and out of revenge is wrong. I was desperate, the situation seemed hopeless, everything seemed to break down around me.

“I loved my daughter above all else. It is inconceivable for me to live without them, I blame myself.”

Sohail reportedly arrived in Germany in 2011, staying in Hamburg before fleeing the city after killing his daughter.

He was finally tracked down in northern Spain, where he was arrested at a friend’s house after applying for a new Pakistani passport so he could return to his native country.

Court papers reveal he killed his daughter “by almost completely separating the child’s head from her body”.

The wife is due to testify to the court via a video link this Friday, so she does not have to share a room with Sohail again. The trial continues.