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 on Monday.
Aisha al-Katib (32) told the court of her daughter Malika al-Katib’s final moments at the hands of Muhammed al-Shaker al-Tamimi, who has pleaded guilty to the child’s murder and was sentenced to life in prison for his crime on Monday.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott imposed a consecutive 10-year sentence on Tamimi for Ms Katib’s attempted murder. He will serve the 10-year sentence before beginning the life sentence. The court heard in the months before the murder, Tamimi began contacting Ms Katib, 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. Ms Katib said she should never have given Tamimi a second chance after he previously held her against her will and forced her to have sex without her consent.
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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 Ms Katib, depriving the woman 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.”
Tamimi (35) of Lower William Street, New Ross, Co Wexford, pleaded guilty last October to murdering Malika al-Katib (8) on December 1st, 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).
Imposing the 10-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 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 10-year sentence expires.
Det Garda Donal Doyle told Monday’s sentencing hearing that after his arrest, Tamimi told gardaí: “I slaughtered my daughter, I didn’t have any mercy, I don’t want any mercy.” He further told gardaí he wanted the “highest punishment” and said: “If the court doesn’t execute me, I will end my life.”
Det Garda Doyle told Anne Rowland SC, prosecuting, Tamimi, who was born in Kuwait, met Ms Katib in Belfast in 2015. After time apart from 2017, he came to Ireland August 2024, where Ms Katib agreed to let him stay with her and Malika in New Ross.
On December 1st, 2024, in New Ross, he accused Ms Katib 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, Tamimi ran at her with a knife in his hand and began stabbing her.
Det Garda Doyle said Ms Katib described 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. Ms Katib told her daughter to run but before she could get away, Tamimi took a larger knife from the block, held the child in front of him and, having “locked eyes” with Ms Katib, he cut the girl’s throat, Det Garda Doyle said. Ms Katib again told her daughter to run and she tried, but fell to the ground, the detective said.
Tamimi stabbed the child again as she lay on the ground, at least twice in the back. Ms Katib meanwhile, managed to call 999 and screamed the address down the phone before Tamimi took the phone away. He then stabbed himself but not as deep as he had stabbed his partner or the child.
Ms Katib heard him say: “That’s fine, all three of us can die”, before lying on the floor and taking a deep breath.
Ms Katib dragged herself along the floor to the front door, opened it and pulled herself on to 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.
He attempted CPR until emergency services arrived. Ms Rowland, prosecuting, said a pathologist identified three stab wounds and four incised wounds on Malika’s body.
Ms Katib had suffered 10 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 Garda Doyle said.
Det Garda Doyle said Tamimi has previous convictions in the UK for the attempted rape of a female over 16 years and for battery.
In her statement, Ms Katib said her daughter’s murder has destroyed her life. She suffers ongoing flashbacks of the moment her life was taken.
