'Manipulative monster' in New Ross who 'smiled' as he cut daughter's throat sentenced - Kilkenny Live

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A "manipulative monster" with a history of violence against women "smiled directly" into his partner's face as he held their eight-year-old child in front of him and cut the little girl's throat, the Central Criminal Court heard today.

Aisha Al Katib (32) told the court today (Monday) of her daughter Malika's final moments at the hands of Muhammed Al Shaker Al Tamimi, who has pleaded guilty to the child's murder and was today sentenced to life in prison for his crime.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott imposed a consecutive ten-year sentence on Al Tamimi for Aisha's attempted murder. He will serve the ten-year sentence before beginning the life sentence.

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The court heard that in the months before the murder, Al Tamimi began contacting Aisha, telling her he was concerned that Malika was not behaving in accordance with the Islamic faith.

During the attack, Malika had bravely told her father to stop stabbing her mother before he grabbed the eight-year-old and turned the knife on her.

Aisha said she should never have given Al Tamimi a second chance after he previously held her against her will and forced her to have sex without her consent.

She described him as a "manipulative monster" who had controlled her for years before murdering their daughter and attempting to murder her.

She told the court of the moment he stabbed Malika, having already stabbed Aisha, depriving Aisha of the use of her legs.

She said: "My heart shatters when I think of my daughter, murdered in front of my eyes as I was unable to move because I was completely paralysed. He smiled directly into my face as he cut Malika's throat. As he was hurting her he had a smile that I will never forget, that follows me in every nightmare... he stabbed her in the heart as she lay beside me."

Al Tamimi (35) of Lower William Street, New Ross, Co Wexford pleaded guilty last October to murdering Malika Al Katib (8) on December 1, 2024 at Lower William Street in New Ross.

He pleaded guilty to a second charge that on the same date and at the same location, he attempted to murder Aisha Al Katib (32).

Handing down the ten-year sentence for attempted murder and mandatory life sentence for murder, Mr Justice McDermott said the home is a place where the mother and child "should have felt at their most secure; in the presence of the child's father, they should have been protected."

He cited the domestic violence aspect of the attempted murder charge as an aggravating feature, noting that the assault happened in the context of "someone who wants their own way, who wants to dominate, who wants to ensure that his will prevails and he will get what he wants."

Having regard to the "extraordinary level of violence perpetrated" and the fact that her child was murdered in front of her eyes, Mr Justice McDermott said it was an appropriate case to impose consecutive sentences, with the life sentence beginning when the ten-year sentence expires.

Det Gda Donal Doyle told today's sentencing hearing that after his arrest, Al Tamimi told gardai: "I slaughtered my daughter, I didn’t have any mercy, I don’t want any mercy." He further told gardai that he wanted the "highest punishment" and said: "If the court doesn't execute me, I will end my life."

Det Gda Doyle told Anne Rowland SC, prosecuting, that Al Tamimi was born in Kuwait to a nomadic tribe. He met Aisha in Belfast in 2015 after he had been granted status in the UK and they had Malika in August 2016. Al Tamimi moved to England and Aisha followed when their daughter was about eight weeks old.

They lived in emergency accommodation but Aisha was not allowed to leave their home, Det Gda Doyle said. On one occasion, Al Tamimi accused Aisha of being with another man, locked her in their apartment and had sexual intercourse with her without her consent.

Aisha's family members contacted police and "rescued her" from the apartment by cutting bars on the windows to get inside, Det Gda Doyle said.

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Aisha went to live with her mother in Tramore in Waterford from 2017 but was reunited with Al Tamimi during a visit to the UK in 2023.

Al Tamimi began contacting Aisha, telling her he was concerned that Malika was not behaving in accordance with the Islamic faith.

In August 2024, Al Tamimi came to Ireland and Aisha agreed to let him stay with her and Malika in New Ross.

He told her he wanted to be part of the family, asked for forgiveness, said he would be a better person and wanted to work.

He didn't get a job, Det Gda Doyle said, but helped out around the house and inquired at New Ross Garda Station about seeking asylum.

In the days before the murder, while Aisha was visiting her mother in Tramore, Al Tamimi phoned Aisha to complain that her mother was interfering in their relationship and he threatened to kill Aisha's brother.

Aisha returned to New Ross at about 4.30pm on Sunday, December 1 and brought Malika to McDonald's for chicken nuggets and chips.

When they arrived home, Al Tamimi was still unhappy. He said he was going to sleep in the park and go to London the following day. Aisha told him to "stop the drama" in front of the child.

Aisha tried to reassure him, telling him she was happy and he doesn't have to be angry all the time. They sat down to watch 'I'm A Celebrity' and Al Tamimi cooked dinner.

Aisha said he continued "nitpicking" at her and complained that she and Malika had no respect for him. His daughter, he complained, hadn't hugged him when she arrived home.

He accused Aisha of sleeping with someone else and hit her on the head with her phone. She told him she wasn't afraid and wasn't going to be intimidated by him.

She decided to return to her mother's home but as she tried to take her keys from her jacket, Al Tamimi ran at her with a knife in his hand and began stabbing her.

Det Gda Doyle said Aisha described Al Tamimi cutting across her neck and cutting her hand as she tried to push him away.

Malika, who had been in bed, ran downstairs and told her father to stop but he struck the little girl with the knife.

Aisha told her daughter to run but before she could get away, Al Tamimi took a larger knife from the block, held the child in front of him and, having "locked eyes" with Aisha, he cut the girl's throat, Det Gda Doyle said. Aisha again told her daughter to run and she tried, but fell to the ground, the detective said.

Al Tamimi stabbed the child again as she lay on the ground, at least twice in the back.

Aisha meanwhile, managed to call 999 and screamed the address down the phone before Al Tamimi took the phone away. He then stabbed himself but not as deep as he had stabbed his partner or the child.

Aisha heard him say: "That's fine, all three of us can die," before lying on the floor and taking a deep breath.

Aisha dragged herself along the floor to the front door, opened it and pulled herself onto the steps outside to raise the alarm, shouting at a passerby: "I'm going to die but please save my daughter."

A neighbour with experience in first aid went inside where he found Malika lying on the floor close to her father, dressed in her pyjamas.

She was pale, clammy and unresponsive and he couldn't find a pulse. When he tilted her head back to start first aid, he noticed a "gaping wound" on the right side of her neck. He attempted CPR until emergency services arrived.

Ms Rowland said a pathologist identified three stab wounds and four incised wounds on Malika's body. A stab wound to the back that penetrated the ribs, lungs and the sac around the heart caused her death.

The wound to her throat did not damage any major arteries and did not cause her death. Some incised wounds to her hands were consistent with defensive type injuries, according to the pathologist's report.

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Aisha had suffered ten stab wounds to her face, neck, upper arms and hands. She required stitches and a tetanus injection.
She has ongoing physical and psychological difficulties and takes painkillers daily for chronic pain, Det Gda Doyle said.

Det Gda Doyle said Al Tamimi has previous convictions in the UK for the attempted rape of a female over 16 years and for battery.

He was sentenced to six years in prison for the attempted rape in 2018 and received a community order for the battery offence in 2023.

In her statement, Aisha said her daughter's murder has destroyed her life. She suffers ongoing flashbacks of the moment her life was taken.

After her death, Aisha washed her daughter's clothes one by one, knowing she would never wear them again, and hung them back in the wardrobe. "When I look at them now, it feels like the air is being punched out of my chest," she said.

She said she first left Al Tamimi in 2017 because she didn't feel safe around him. However, even during those years when he was in London or in prison, he controlled and manipulated her through phone calls, messages and false promises, she said.

When she took him back, she believed he had changed, she said, and he swore on the Koran that he would never hurt her or Malika.

She said: "Because of how sacred and precious the Koran is to Muslims, I believed him. I thought nobody would swear on something so holy unless they meant it."

Aisha had her own health scares and thought that if she died, she wanted Malika to have her father.

She added: "I wish I had never believed him or let him back into our lives. This guilt is something I will carry for the rest of my life. I carry a deep emotional conflict within myself, I struggle every day with the pain of trusting her father and believing he loved her as much as I did.

"That belief now haunts me and I will live with the overwhelming regret forever of accepting his promises.

"It is a very heavy burden that I have to carry and I know deep down that a mother should never have to question herself for hoping her child’s father would protect her. But that regret stays with me and adds to the heartache I already live with."

She said she knows now that she shouldn't have believed that he would change, but added: "I was not raised with good examples of men and I didn't know any better."

She still fears for her safety, she said, as Al Tamimi often told her that she "belongs only to him" and he would kill her if he ever saw her with another man.

She said: "Those threats were real, consistent and terrifying and they make me fear for my life, even if he is never allowed to walk free from prison."

Her physical injuries leave her in constant pain, she said, but that is "nothing compared to the agony in my heart. Nothing compares to the pain of losing my daughter."

She said she pushed herself to learn to walk and to be strong enough to speak in court on her daughter's behalf. "After this, I don't know what direction my life will take," she said. "I am so broken, looking at me you may not see it, but if you could share one moment of my pain, you would understand how loud my heart screams for my daughter."

Al Tamimi, she said, was jealous of the bond of love, loyalty, respect and friendship she shared with her daughter. She said she saw him change into a "devil" and a "monster" and she was in court to face that monster again.

She said: "I thought he loved her as much as I did, and now I know it's all part of his manipulation. He cannot feel compassion, he is a monster."

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Aisha said she dyed her hair because when she looks in the mirror, she doesn't want to see the scars but rather something that her daughter loved - bright, pink colours.

She added: "When I want to visit her and buy her gifts, I have to go to a place of soil where she lies. She doesn't kiss or hug me or laugh with me. I know she hears me when I speak to her but it's not enough. She should have a full life. I should be watching her go to secondary school, having a career, falling in love, getting married."

"My only hope is that in the next life I will reunite with her and until then, I fight every day just to survive."

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