Man Guilty of Bracknell Underpass Murder

30 November 2012, 16:48 | Updated: 30 November 2012, 17:08

A 28-year-old man's been found guilty of murdering his partner whose body was found in an underpass in Bracknell in May.

Muhammad Shafi has been sentenced to life imprisonment at Reading Crown Court with a recommendation he serve a minimum of 23 years in jail. He had denied the charge.

Shafi attacked Tuanjai Sprengel, 43, in an underpass under the London Road A329 in the early hours of Sunday, May 27 2012.

On the Saturday before her body was found Tuanjai and Shafi went to the Ladbrokes shop in Bracknell at 5pm where they stayed until 10pm playing the roulette machines.

The couple did argue at one point but left together at 10pm. It was found they had lost about £1,000 on the roulette machines during the course of the evening.

Between midnight and 1am on Sunday 27 May, a witness heard an argument between a man and a woman in the Basemoors area.

At just after 8am, Tuanjai’s body was found in the underpass by a man who was cycling home from work on a night shift.

At around 9am, Shafi went to his friend‘s house in Bracknell and asked him to look after a rucksack. Shafi told him: “I’ve done a very bad thing”.

Shafi told another friend that he had killed his wife. The friend told him to hand himself into the police but Shafi refused and instead dumped his rucksack filled with bloodstained clothes on waste area behind a nearby BP garage.

Police had discovered Tuanjai’s identity and at 2pm officers attended her address in Basemoors. They met Shafi who said he was her partner.

He told them that they had argued the day before but had gone out in Bracknell and returned at 11pm.

He said that Tuanjai then went out with a friend, but he could not provide details of that friend or explain why he had not reported her missing.

At 2.15pm Shafi was arrested and cautioned but did not make any reply. He denied the murder.