A jealous father-of-four who stabbed his estranged wife to death just days before she was due to begin moving out of the family home has been jailed for life.

Aftab Alam, 53, drove to a police station after the unprovoked brutal assault and calmly told officers: "I have just killed my wife."

Alam was today sentenced at Manchester Crown Court to life imprisonment for murder and ordered to serve a minimum of 12 years before he can be considered for parole.

The court heard his relationship with Aisha Alam was "profoundly affected" when he suffered two brain haemorrhages in recent years.

The marriage deteriorated and Mrs Alam reported she suffered domestic violence at his hands in 2011 but she did not want to press charges, police said.

Their relationship remained strained and it is understood Mrs Alam had been due to exchange contracts on moving home just days after she was murdered.

She was sitting on the sofa at their home in Levenshulme, Greater Manchester, on November 22 last year when her husband stabbed her up to 13 times in the neck, chest and back.

He then drove from the address in Mayford Road with a holdall containing the murder weapon and made his confession at Longsight police station.

Sentencing, Judge Robert Atherton told him: "It is clear you suffered from a depressive illness as a result of the brain haemorrhages.

"At the same time your wife developed a life of her own. You became jealous and hostile with her."

He said Alam, who earlier pleaded guilty to murder, had deprived his children of their mother and, in some ways, himself.

"They will have to live with the dreadful fact that you took their mother from them," he said.

Following sentencing, senior investigating officer, Duncan Thorpe, said: "Aisha was a mother of four children and had everything to live for.

"Her family remain heartbroken by what has happened. Aftab Alam not only callously took a life in a brutal and unprovoked attack, he has deprived four children of their mother.

"Our thoughts go out to all of Aisha's family and friends and hope that this conviction will bring them some closure, so they can begin to rebuild their lives."