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A man who shot dead his heavily pregnant ex-wife with a crossbow has been found guilty of murder.

Sana Muhammad was shot through the abdomen by Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo at her home in Ilford, east London, on 12 November 2018.

He hid in a shed in his ex-partner’s garden armed with two crossbows, bolts, a knife, duct tape, cable ties and a hammer, the Old Bailey heard.

Mrs Muhammad’s son survived after being delivered by Caesarean section.

The court heard the couple’s relationship ended in 2012 after an incident which led to her jumping out of an upstairs window.

At a trial in 2013, a judge directed jurors to acquit Unmathallegadoo of attempted strangulation.

The mother-of-five then successfully filed for an emergency non-molestation order which barred the defendant from coming within 100 metres of the family home.

The order was still in place at the time of her attack.

The court heard Unmathallegadoo plotted the attack – buying two crossbows which were discovered near his ex-wife’s home by a neighbour in March 2018.

After they were removed, he replaced the weapons and organised surveillance on the house in Applegarth Drive.

‘She just screamed’

Mrs Muhammad’s second husband Imtiaz told the court he was in the garden and thought he was “dreaming” when he saw the defendant step out of the shed with two crossbows.

He shouted to his wife to run as Unmathallegadoo chased him into their home.

“When she got an arrow she just screamed. I was thinking, ‘what is happening?’, I was screaming for her.”

Mr Muhammad said the defendant had a second crossbow on his shoulder and he thought: “The second one might be for me.”

Unmathallegadoo later claimed Mr Muhammad was his target but that his ex-wife got in the way.

The court heard Unmathallegadoo’s children tried to take the crossbow away from him.