Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Chief Detective Inspector Bill Reade described this as an honour killing,[1] and the prosecutors stated she was murdered for trying to achieve independence from her husband and undergoing westernisation.

According to testimony at Manchester Crown Court, following the move to England Al-Khatib became increasingly jealous and controlling of Alayed and subjected her to years of domestic and sexual violence.

In January 2013, she reported him to the police for domestic abuse, obtained a non-molestation order and moved into a homeless hostel,[6] from where she and her children were subsequently rehoused in[8] Cheetham Hill, March 2013.

[1] The search for Alayed's remains encompassed a 19-mile stretch of the A19 and involved two police forces, teams from the Royal Engineers and RAF, along with specialist sniffer dogs, forensic botanists and archaeologists.

He presented the partial defence of diminished responsibility, claiming that he was mentally ill and had killed Alayed in self-defence when she appeared to him in the form of an "evil apparition", or djinn.

[15] Throughout the trial, in an attempt to convince the jury that he was ill, he rocked back and forth, banged his head repeatedly against the dock and attacked both an interpreter and his brother.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which took more than four years to complete its investigation, found ‘very serious concerns’ and "recurring systems issues" in the way GMP handled domestic violence cases.