A 50-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a heavily pregnant woman with a crossbow in her home. 

Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo, of no fixed address, was remanded in custody  at the Old Bailey on Thursday after appearing at Barkingside Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

Sana Muhammad, 35, was shot in her stomach in front of her children at her home on Applegarth Drive in Ilford, east London on Monday at around 7.40am.

She was doing the washing up when her husband, Imtiaz Muhammad, shouted at her to “run, run, run,” he told the Evening Standard.

She died in hospital at 11am that day, but doctors saved her unborn baby boy via caesarean section. He was due in December.

Unmathallegadoo is believed to be her ex-partner. A trial date has been set for April 8 next year.

Muhammad’s death was the 120th murder in the capital this year – a toll which has exceeded that of the whole of 2017.

Well wishers have raised around £5,000 for the victim’s family through a crowdfunding page set up by her local community.