Woman partially decapitated after enraged husband became convinced she was a rape victim

A woman had her throat slit by her new husband after he became obsessed with her previous partners and refused to believe she was a virgin, a court has heard. The incident took place in Islington, North London, in January 2016.

Arben Rexha, a 32-year-old Albanian, attacked and killed his wife Elidona Demiraj just three months after she moved to the UK from her native Albania. Rexha nearly decapitated Demiraj in the horrifying incident, according to a report published in Metro.

The Old Bailey heard that Rexha was convinced his wife had an abortion during a previous relationship and attacked her after they had been living together for 12 weeks in Graham Street.

"She had been with him, they were married and were living together – an arranged marriage has been completed and that is why she came here," said Prosecutor Richard Christie QC

"The events that occurred took place in their home address."

Christie said that leading up to Demiraj's death, the victim had travelled to Luton to stay with two friends following an argument with Rexha, but he followed shortly after and the pair returned to London.

"Their relationship was becoming extremely fractious at this point, he held the belief that she had betrayed him in some way – the full context of that is not absolutely clear. The issue of pregnancy was raised in interview. He also agreed that he believed that she had been raped by another man. He acknowledged that he kept on asking her about it.

"He recalled that he became obsessed with her virginity and tried to find information on the internet about how to tell if someone was a virgin."

After murdering his wife, Rexha contacted the emergency services to tell them he had slashed her throat. Police found the victim on her bed.

"Her head was resting on a pillow and there was also a three-inch slash injury on her arm and she was partially decapitated.

"There was various injuries that she sustained, multiple stab wounds – this is not just one wound this is something that has obviously been going on for some time."