A man who attacked his disabled wife and cut off her head with a kitchen knife has been jailed for at least 22 years.

The judge described the murder of 38-year-old Tahira Ahmed at the family home in Northolt, west London as "perfect barbarity".

Naveed Ahmed, 41, was said to have "snapped like a twig" when he carried out the attack on 27 May last year after losing his job as a Lidl supermarket manager.

After the "ferocious and brutal" killing, he fled the house but was picked up nearby by police who spotted he was sweating heavily and had blood stains on his coat.

The Old Bailey heard officers had previously been called to the property in Merton Avenue on a number of occasions following reports of violence by Mrs Ahmed, but no action was taken.

Ahmed was born in Pakistan and came to the UK shortly before their marriage in 1998 which was arranged by the couple's mothers, who were cousins.

The court was told he later came to regret the marriage because his wife suffered from a rare degenerative condition known as Morquio's syndrome.

Ahmed had initially denied killing the mother of two but just before the trial was due to start earlier this month he changed his plea to guilty.

Jailing him for life with a minimum term of 22 years, judge Christopher Moss QC said: "Your marriage is reported as being volatile with suggestions of violence.

"Psychiatric reports in your case make it plain you are a man of jealous disposition. On the 27th of May last year you attacked (your wife) in the most brutal and ferocious way.

"You appeared to use a table leg to beat her. You took a kitchen knife that was later found in the kitchen sink and attacked her with it. You used it to effectively decapitate her at a time she was either dead or dying.

"There can be no doubt in my judgement that you intended to kill her."

The court heard a post-mortem examination identified 70 "stabbing, cutting and blunt trauma" injuries to Mrs Ahmed's body including defensive wounds to her hands and arms.

Her sister Zahra Hanif said in a family impact statement her loss and manner of death had "reverberated in the community".

She described her sister as a "gentle soul" who helped others and had the "strength to overcome her physical disability".

In a statement after the hearing, the family said: "On this day, there is no celebration, for we have forever lost a dearly loved daughter, sister, mother and friend.

"Her life was cut short in the most brutal manner by a barbaric man with out-dated and backward ideals.”