Her blood-curdling screams could be heard in the court room on Tuesday as a recording of her phone call to the police was played back on the first day of the trial.

On July 2nd 2010 the victim, a Moroccan woman, asked the officer on the other end of the line to hold for a moment as she went to check the number of her neighbour’s flat, newspaper Le Temps reports,

But when she left the phone she instead came face to face with her husband, also a Moroccan, despite a barring order that prohibited him from coming to her flat.

“Someone help me. I need help,” were the victim’s last words on the police recording.

As the woman was in her death throes, her husband’s voice could be heard saying: “Die quietly and you will be able to see the man I am.”

The brutal killing took place in front of the couple’s 10-month-old daughter.

The man then got into the elevator with the baby and called the police to announce he had killed his wife.

When the judge asked for an explanation, the defendant said he had wanted them to stay together but “things got out hand.”

The victim’s neighbours remembered how happy she was when she met her husband during a trip to Morocco. They married in April 2009, and their daughter was born shortly after.

“She was proud of his efforts to reunite the family and was glad he came to Switzerland,” a neighbour said.