A young mother was stabbed to death in front of her two young children and mother by her estranged husband after he was told he had lost a custody battle and was being deported, a court was told.

Cassandra Hasanovic, 24, had voiced repeated fears to police and her family about a catalogue of threats and abuse conducted over several years by her Serbian-born husband Hajrudin Hasanovic, jurors were told.

It is alleged that after being told he had lost his custody battle and was being deported, he plunged a large kitchen knife into Mrs Hasanovic's chest as she and her sons were about to be driven to a women's refuge in Bognor on July 29 last year.

Hasanovic was described as a “paranoid and jealous” partner who controlled his wife throughout their five-year marriage and turned her from being bright and bubbly to a “petrified” young woman.

Lewes Crown Court heard that the couple's relationship ended in May 2007 after he was arrested and freed on bail on suspicion of attacking his wife.

Prosecutor Philippa McAtasney QC said the incident proved to be the catalyst for Mrs Hasanovic leaving her husband and led to her fleeing to Australia where she had relatives amid fears he would try to take their children.

Mrs Hasanovic, known as Cassie, had hoped to fight for custody arrangements of their children from Australia but she and her family back in the UK were bombarded with threats by Hasanovic, it was said.

Mrs Hasanovic made a number of statements to police in Australia and in the UK detailing the threatening behaviour he had subjected her to, Ms McAtasney told the jury.

In one statement, she said: “I am genuinely scared for my children and my own safety and feel that they would be in danger if they were near Harry.”

In December 2007, an Australian court granted an injunction designed to stop Hasanovic harassing his estranged wife.

But he in turn initiated legal proceedings for the matter of who should gain custody of their children to be decided in the UK - and in February last year she returned from Australia with them.

Opening the Crown's case, Ms McAtasney said the order “devastated” Mrs Hasanovic who went on to tell a relative: “He is going to kill me.”

Hasanovic, 33, of Prescott Close, Guston, near Dover, Kent, denies murder but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The trial continues.