Her short life had been marred by tragedy and loss but this made Nisha Patel-Nasri all the more determined to make the most of every day.

Despite working seven days a week at her hairdressing business, which she had started on leaving school and earned her £60,000 a year, Mrs Patel-Nasri became a volunteer police officer.

As she patrolled the streets of Wembley to give something back to the community where she was born, her husband was plotting her murder.

Her parents had emigrated from the Indian state of Gujarat, but her father died in 1996 and she then faced more heartache, becoming a carer for her mother, a depressive who died in 2001.

A year later, her luck appeared to change when she met Fadi Nasri.

After a whirlwind six-month romance, the couple were married in May 2003 in Newbury, Berkshire. In October she became a special constable.

At this time she was also doing the accounts for her husband's escort agency, Seventh Heaven.

She had helped him to set up the seedy business, where the girls regularly had sex with their clients but, a few months after the couple were married, she persuaded him to close it down.

She provided the £15,000 for him to launch his limousine hire firm, Limo Lounge, in 2004, and put up a £52,000 deposit for their £400,000 house in Sudbury Avenue, Wembley.

They were described as a happy couple, who had their rows but always made up.

They were openly affectionate to each other and friends say Mrs Patel-Nasri adored him.

Her trusting nature and an inclination to "see the best in people" kept her with a man she knew lacked any morals.

However, in Nasri's eyes, the marriage was a sham. He was having an affair at a time when his wife was desperate to have children.

She had confided in friends that her husband would arrive back at their home late at night, always saying that he was too tired to try for a baby. Some claimed she was considering divorcing him.

Shortly before her death, aged 29, she also admitted to friends that the couple were heavily in debt, owing more than £100,000 to banks and building societies.

But whatever was happening in her private life, Mrs Patel-Nasri, who was well-known and liked by the local community, seemed happy and upbeat.

One friend, Milan Kamdar, from Northwood, said: "Nisha was infectiously happy. She was always so positive.

"If I were having a bad day, it would perk me up just seeing her."

The 40-year-old, who runs a Gujarati newspaper, added: "She was incredibly supportive. I have never met anyone like her and probably never will again. She was truly special."