![\"Paramjit](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_trib_3JPG.jpg\")
<\/p>\nParamjit Kaur was murdered by her husband Harminder Mattu<\/p>\n
14:16, 02 Apr 2026Updated 20:07, 02 Apr 2026<\/p>\n
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Paramjit Kaur(Image: WMP)<\/p>\n
The family of a woman throttled to death by her husband just months after she filed for divorce have told how they ‘wish they could have done more’.<\/p>\n
Paramjit Kaur fell unconscious as she was strangled by husband Harminder Mattu before he then stabbed her in the neck.<\/p>\n
The 46-year-old’s murder came just two months after she filed for divorce and left the marital home – but Mattu ‘manipulated’ her into returning, claiming he was going to take his own life.<\/p>\n
She had decided to leave their marriage of almost 10 years after being subjected to violent attacks at the hands of her ‘controlling’ husband, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.<\/p>\n
Ms Kaur, 46, died at the property in Swan Crescent, Oldbury, in March 2025.<\/p>\n
Mattu, 51, denied murder but was convicted by jurors following a trial earlier this year.<\/p>\n
He was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 18 years, on Thursday, April 2.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: How detectives ‘unpicked lies’ cruel mother told after killing her own baby<\/a><\/p>\n In a statement read to the court, Ms Kaur’s family told how they struggled when people in the community questioned what had happened to her.<\/p>\n They said: “We feel guilty that we did not know everything she was going through.<\/p>\n “We wish we could have done more to help her.”<\/p>\n Ms Kaur – who was known as Soni and originally from Punjab, India – was described as ‘hardworking, kind and charitable’.<\/p>\n Her family said: “She would give to people who needed it, she would help family members financially.<\/p>\n “She was not the eldest of the siblings but she behaved in a way that, in short, she looked after the whole family.”<\/p>\n They added: “Paramjit was very caring and was always there when we, as a family, needed her.<\/p>\n “We all went to her for advice and she was the person to talk to.<\/p>\n “Other people, such as friends and people in our community, would always go to her for help and advice.<\/p>\n “We all feel a huge loss not being able to call her and speak to her.<\/p>\n “Knowing she is gone and that we don’t have her support is very hard.”<\/p>\n They went on: “She was a very good person. We still can’t believe she is gone.”<\/p>\n Relatives in India, including Ms Kaur’s elderly parents, were told of the killing over the phone, the court heard.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Secret to getting the best of BirminghamLive’s stories<\/a><\/p>\n Harminder Mattu(Image: WMP)<\/p>\n The family said they have found to ‘difficult to understand’ how Mattu could ‘do this’, adding: “Then, to find out that her husband was responsible for her death, we were totally shocked.<\/p>\n “However, we did know that he was not a good person and he beat her up in December.”<\/p>\n The family told how in India, funerals are held soon after a person dies, usually within a couple of days.<\/p>\n But due to the circumstances of her death, Ms Kaur could not be laid to rest for six months.<\/p>\n The family said: “We wanted for her to be laid to rest and at peace but knowing she was in a mortuary for six months was very tormenting for us.”<\/p>\n Hours after the murder, Mattu walked into West Bromwich police station and told officers ‘I have murdered’<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite this, he denied murder in court and stood trial – but did not give evidence to jurors.<\/p>\n Judge Butterfield said he believed the knife wounds were inflicted when Ms Kaur was ‘at least unconscious and, in reality, close to death’.<\/p>\n But her family said that not knowing the exact circumstances which led to her death has been ‘tortuous’, adding ‘we just want to know what happened to Paramjit’.<\/p>\n Prosecutor Jonathan Barker told the court how the murder has had a ‘devastating impact’ on Ms Kaur’s mother Surinder Kaur – who lives in Punjab, India.<\/p>\n She feels ‘helpless’ and has struggled to sleep in the wake of her daughter’s death.<\/p>\n He said: “I was told that Surinder Kaur feels a degree of responsibility for what has happened because she was instrumental in the family sending Paramjit to this country to get married.”<\/p>\n Judge John Butterfield KC was sympathetic and said: “I dare say she was instrumental but that does not mean she should bear any responsibility.”<\/p>\n Jurors were told during the trial how forensic pathologist Dr Alexander Kolar believed Ms Kaur was strangled and then stabbed<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr Barker said: “Dr Kolar’s view was that the most likely sequence of events, based upon the medical findings, was that Ms Kaur was initially subjected to an episode of applied neck pressure, resulting in a profoundly unconscious state before she sustained the sharp force injuries.<\/p>\n “She then succumbed to the effects of the applied neck pressure – in other words, it was the pressure to the neck that caused her death.<\/p>\n “He, of course, acknowledges that another sequence of events is possible but that’s where the medical findings take Dr Kolar.<\/p>\n “What is clear is that the knife injuries did not cause Ms Kaur’s death.”<\/p>\n Mr Barker added: “It begs the question, doesn’t it, why this defendant would have strangled his wife and why he then used a knife to stab and cut her.”<\/p>\n Read more from court here<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Harminder](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_imagey1l1i.jpg\")
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