A chef stabbed his teenage girlfriend to death with a kitchen knife then turned the weapon on himself because “if they could not live together, they would die together”, a jury heard.

Til Bahadur Rana, 34, and Beena Bhatt, 18, were found together in a pool of blood in the bedroom of Rana’s Bradford city centre flat on April 8.

Miss Bhatt died soon afterwards of a stab wound to the heart, a murder trial jury at Bradford Crown Court was told yesterday.

Her mother, Geeta Bhatt, cut her hand grabbing a knife from Rana at his flat in Landmark House, Broadway. Rana had surgery for multiple wounds to his abdomen. The court heard his flatmate, Vishwanath Shetty, saw him stabbing himself with a kitchen knife.

Rana, a Nepalese national who worked at the Tulsi restaurant in Centenary Square, Bradford, denies murdering Miss Bhatt but admits her manslaughter.

He pleaded guilty before the trial to unlawfully wounding Mrs Bhatt.

Prosecutor Tom Storey told the jury Miss Bhatt met Rana when she worked as a waitress at Tulsi when she was 17.

Her parents did not approve of the relationship and Rana threatened to jump out of his flat window, saying he could not live without her, the court heard.

Mr Shetty heard Rana say “on numerous occasions” that if he could not have Beena he would kill her and himself, Mr Storey said.

He told the jury Miss Bhatt became pregnant by Rana but the pregnancy was terminated in November last year.

Although her father had told Rana to stop seeing his daughter, the relationship continued and the couple tattooed their arms with each other’s initials.

In April, Miss Bhatt told her parents Rana had a family in Nepal and was using her in the hope of obtaining the right to remain in the UK, it is alleged.

On April 8, Miss Bhatt and her mother went to collect her medication from Rana’s flat. He talked to the teenager in his bedroom and her mother saw he was trying to persuade her to stay with him, Mr Storey said.

It is alleged that Rana put his hands round Miss Bhatt’s neck and her mother tried to pull her away. Mrs Bhatt seized a knife off Rana by the blade.

The court heard that Mr Shetty saw Rana stab Miss Bhatt three times before turning the weapon on himself.

The jury was told that Rana’s defence was that he lost control after learning Miss Bhatt was about to terminate a second pregnancy. But Mr Storey said Miss Bhatt was not pregnant.

The trial continues.