'Evil' woman sent picture of tied-up partner to lover hours before strangling him to death
A manipulative woman who humiliated her partner by sharing a photograph of him bound with electrical cables before she strangled him to death has been jailed for life.
Charlotte Dootson, 25, murdered Mohammed Mukhtar, 53, at his home in Miles Platting, Manchester, in August last year following a campaign of abusive and violent conduct against him.
“Gentle” Mr Mukhtar, known as Amin, was tied up for more than two hours before she killed him.
He had also suffered a laceration to his liver which was caused by a kick or stamp to his stomach from Dootson.
Mr Mukhtar, described as being “harmless” and “vulnerable”, had suffered domestic abuse at Dootson's hand for years.
She had repeatedly attacked him during a campaign of cruelty, and at the time she murdered him, Dootson was under investigation for allegedly strangling him with a cable extension.
Before Mr Mukhtar’s death, Dootson rang a man who seven days before she had started flirting with online, Manchester Crown Court heard.
During their conversation they exchanged sexual images of each other and engaged in sexual conversation.
Dootson, a former drug addict with a personality disorder, had also sent a picture of Mr Mukhtar bound by his feet, hands and neck on the sofa in his living room at Droitwich Road.
The man texted: “Hope you don’t do that to me.” Dootson replied: “Never hang you.” The man went on: “You can tie me up in kinky way”, to which Dootson said: “Shouldn’t that be the man x”. He replied: “Oh that if you into that x”. Dootson said: “I sure am, I’m into whips x”.
Hours after sending the photograph, Dootson called her father and said Mr Mukhtar was not breathing or moving and she thought she had killed him.
Her father asked her to put him in the recovery position, start CPR and call an ambulance but the defendant said she did not want to alert the police and left the address.
Dootson was arrested in the street shortly after and earlier this month pleaded guilty to murder.
Alaric Bassano, prosecuting, said it was as if the defendant was “revelling in or amused” by Mr Mukhtar’s turmoil.
He said: “Her violence against the deceased was gratuitous and her treatment of him degrading and humiliating.”
Bassano said it was not an isolated incident and that Dootson had repeatedly assaulted Mr Mukhtar during their four-year relationship, often with weapons including knives and twice causing him to seek hospital treatment.
Dootson had been arrested three times on suspicion of assaulting Mr Mukhtar, and on one occasion she spent a month in custody before the case was ultimately thrown out after he refused to support the prosecution.
Defending, Tim Storrie argued that Dootson had not intended to kill Mr Mukhtar, but judge Patrick Field said this was inconsistent with the evidence. Mr Storrie said Dootson's personality disorder meant she had a reduced ability to function in 'normal terms'.
However, the judge said Dootson’s mental health issues, along with a mild learning disability, only had a “limited impact” on her blameworthiness for the killing.
Dootson, of no fixed address, has been jailed for life and must serve a minimum of 22-and-a-half years.
In a victim personal statement on behalf of the family, Mr Mukhtar’s sister, Fozia, said: “Each and every one of us are tormented at the thought of what Amin endured in the final moments before his death.
“It is just pure evil and callous. Amin was a timid guy, he was just so quiet and kind. He wouldn’t hurt anyone and he did not deserve what you did to him.
“We can never forgive you for what you have done and for taking such a well-loved, genuine guy away from us all. Our hearts are broken.”
Dootson, who smirked on prison video-link throughout the hearing, grinned and held her thumbs up to the camera in response to the family’s statement.
