MOMENTS before Mansoor Mahmood was fatally stabbed, his wife called him to check he was ok as she had "a bad feeling", a court heard.

Aisha Akhtar told Birmingham Crown Court that her 24-year-old husband had gone out at around 4pm on October 15, 2016 to get something to eat.

But before he left the flat they shared with their two children in Bague Walk, Brierley Hill, he had armed himself with a screwdriver.

"I told him to take it," Ms Akhtar told the court.

"He told me that a couple of days before he had a bad dream and because of that I told him to take it as I was worried for his safety."

Ms Akhtar said that shortly after her husband had left, she had called him to see where he was.

This was the last time she spoke to him she said, adding: "He told me he was on the High Street, walking to the shops. I just wanted to make sure he was ok because of the dream he told me about. I just had a bad feeling."

Ms Akhtar told the court that her husband and Niron Parker-Lee (pictured below)- the man currently standing trial for his murder, which he denies - were known to each other.

Dudley News: WANTED: Niron Parker-Lee. Photo: West Midlands Police

She said that in October 2015, Parker-Lee had got into the couple's car and they had been talking about cannabis, which she said her husband had regularly smoked.

"I wasn't sure exactly what they were saying as I was on my phone," she said, adding: "They seemed fine talking to each other."

However she said the pair's relationship had soon turned sour and recalled overhearing a heated telephone conversation between the pair.

She said she heard her husband swearing and that after the call, Mr Mahmood had told her that Parker-Lee had told him "it's on", which she understood to mean "a fight, basically".

She told the court that her husband had also told her that after a confrontation with Parker-Lee in Brierley Hill High Street he told him "you should die".

Ms Akhtar said that although she was aware of her husband using cannabis, she had no knowledge of him dealing drugs - despite two arrests for possession of cannabis and heroin during the duration of their marriage, which she told the jury she was unaware of.

Christopher Millington QC, prosecuting, said that it was a dispute about drugs that had led to Parker-Lee, of Blewitt Street, Pensnett, stabbing Mr Mahmood in abdomen with such force that the blade came out on the other side of his body.

Parker-Lee, aged 20, does admit that he stabbed and killed Mr Mahmood, said Mr Millington - although he claims he acted in self-defence.

Mr Millington told the court that while "blows were exchanged" between the pair, Mr Mahmood's screwdriver was found in the waistband of his trousers by a paramedic after he was stabbed, adding: "It had not been removed or deployed at any time during this violence."

The trial continues.