A husband who brutally murdered his teenage wife stabbing her 38 times on Christmas Day has been jailed for life.

Parwin Quriashi, 19, died after the savage attack at her home in Kentish Court, London Road, Maidstone.

Today her husband Mohammad Qoraishi, who is eight years her senior, was told he will serve a minimum of 16 years and 82 days for her killing.

The scene after the murder on Christmas Day

Judge David Griffith-Jones QC said: "This was a senseless murder of your wife.

"Whilst I'm prepared to accept the murder was not premeditated but occured in a fit of rage in which you snapped it is clear that you knew what you were doing and your intention was to kill her.

"The inescapable fact is you performed these acts of utter barbarity and in the cold light of day you've had to face the enormity of what you've done."

Qoraishi sat impassively in the dock as he was told his fate.

He had married his cousin Parwin by arrangement who had arrived in Britain in 2011.

The judge said: "There were tensions after your arranged marriage. You and your wife did not live together on your return to the UK after your marriage in Afghanistan.

"You weren't happy about moving to Maidstone and you made your feelings clear.

"Parwin's father remained hostile about you. You were in rage and you snapped.

"You launched a frenzied attack stabbing her several times."

He said any one of seven wounds could have proved fatal which were inflicted with considerable force.

He added: "You thereby deprived her of all future joys and potential accomplishments to which she will have been looking forward.

"You also wrenched her from he immediate family in the most unexpected and brutal of fashions, depriving them of a daughter and sister, thereby inflicting on her parents and her siblings a degree of pain and suffering so sudden and extreme that it will surely live with them forever."

After the murder the 27-year-old drove away from the bloody scene - trying to flee to the continent.

But a judge at Maidstone Crown Court heard it was Christmas Day last year and the port was shut.

The taxi driver was arrested at the wheel of his Audi A3 wearing blood-stained clothes.

Parwin was discovered in the flat when neighbours became concerned after noises in the flat and a woman's screams.

The victim's father Gulwali Quriashi, who had arrived with police, was so distressed at finding her on the floor in the kitchen that he threw himself over her body - as paramedics were trying to resuscitate her.

Parwin had been an "outstanding pupil" at Maplesden Noakes in Buckland Road, according to her teachers.

She had wanted to attend university to study law because coming from Afghanistan she wanted to give people a voice, saying: "Law is important to me."

Prosecutor Alexandra Healy QC outlined tensions between the two families after the arrangement marriage in Afghanistan.

She said: "He murdered her on Christmas Day last year.

"Parwin was just 19-years-old and was the victim of a ferocious and sustained attack in her own kitchen.

"She had 38 stab wounds to her head, chest and thighs.

"She had also been strangled and had been hit to the back of her head with a frying pan."

Parwin received six wounds to her artery and abdomen which would have been fatal, a pathologist revealed.

One wound to her neck was 6cm in depth.

The prosecutor added some of the knife wounds could have been administered after Parwin was already dead.

Qoraishi was quizzed four times by police after his arrest. He claimed Parwin's father had threatened him.

He began singing in Dari 'Uncle is evil. God will punish him'.

Qoraishi had a letter read to court in which he was a grateful Britain had given him a home for 10 years after fleeing the war in Kabul.

"I am deeply ashamed about what I did and can only apologise from my heart and plead for forgiveness," he said.

Bernard Tetlow QC defending said: "Something must have snapped inside of him and he simply lost control."

He said the trigger for the attack was because of the arranged marriage and the fact he was happy living in Hull and the reluctance of Parwin's father to let her move to Hull where he had a job, and a home.

Qoraishi, pleaded guilty to her murder last month during a hearing when he was expected to enter a not guilty plea.

But after private talks with his barrister, Qoraishi, who was appearing by prison video link, repeated: "Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty".

Ms Healy added Qoraishi left the scene in his Audi and was apprehended in the vicinity of Dover by police.

The Crown say he was intending to leave the country not appreciating that because it was Christmas Day the Port of Dover was closed.

Senior investigating officer DCI Ivan Beasley said: "This was an unprovoked and savage attack on a defenceless young woman.

"Her tragic death at the hands of her husband has left a family mourning her loss.

"Qoraishi fled the scene and was tracked down by officers near Dover.

"It is only right that he will now spend a considerable time in prison for this brutal crime."

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