INTERNATIONAL - SA MAN JAILED IN AUSTRALIA AFTER BEATING WIFE WITH WHEEL SPANNER, SUFFOCATING HER & BURYING HER IN GARDEN

Fahima Yusuf and Ahmed Seedat on their wedding day. (Facebook)

A former resident of Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal, who murdered his wife as their children slept and then buried her in their backyard with the hope of pursuing a relationship with her sister, will spend at least 23 years in a Western Australian prison, New Zealand Herald reported.

Ahmed Dawood Seedat, 37, reportedly pleaded guilty to the murder of his 32-year-old British wife Fahima Yusuf at their home in Carlisle, Western Australia, in August last year.

According to the New Zealand Herald, Seedat planned the murder for weeks, in the hopes that, by killing his wife, he'd be free to pursue a relationship with his sister-in-law, it has been revealed.

Instead, he was sentenced to a minimum of 23 years in prison on Tuesday.

Seedat was born in Durban and lived in Ladysmith before moving to Australia when he was young, Sunday Tribune reported. He completed his schooling and tertiary education in Australia.

Seedat reportedly worked at an Australian accounting firm.

According to UK publication Daily Star, Yusuf mouthed "I love you" as Seedat used a wheel spanner to beat her to death.

She was in bed when he brutally attacked her, beating her before suffocating her and burying her in the back garden.

He had reportedly meticulously planned the murder, searching for "burying a cat" and "burying someone alive", as he plotted to pursue a relationship with her sister. Seedat had also searched online: "Can you marry your brother-in-law if your sister is dead Muslim?"

Hired contractor to dig hole

He reportedly had a hole dug by a contractor – and claimed it was because he was building a swimming pool for their children. This is where he then buried her.

After her death, he reportedly lied to friends and family, telling them she'd gone to the UK for eye surgery. He told his sister-in-law she had left him.

According to the New Zealand Herald, Justice Bruno Fiannaca described the killing as brutal, callous and cowardly.

"It may have been technically clumsy but it was calculated behaviour," the judge reportedly said.

"You envisaged a future with your sister-in-law … you had become emotionally dependent on her."

A Ladysmith community leader, who did not want to be named, told the Sunday Tribune that the family visited South Africa every three or four years to see their relatives.

He reportedly said that only one of Seedat's uncles, his father's brother, still lived in Ladysmith. The community leader said he could not remember Seedat, as he was young when the family immigrated to Australia.

"However, I remember the father and he was well respected in the community. Even if you didn't know the family that well, this type of news always comes as a shock to any community."

via - NEWS24