My husband killed our unborn baby: Grieving mother speaks out about shocking attack

Leticia was 20 weeks pregnant when her husband Ahmed Karim — an Alameddine crime clan member — repeatedly stomped on her stomach yelling “I want you and the baby to die”.

Leticia Chalmers, right, visits the grave of her baby daughter. Leticia was 20 weeks pregnant when her husband Ahmed Karim, left, repeatedly stomped on her stomach, killing her unborn child. Pictures: News Corp/Supplied

Every day for almost two years, Leticia Chalmers has visited the grave of her baby daughter, but she’s never been allowed to tell the true horror of how the child died. Until now.

Leticia was 20 weeks pregnant when her husband Ahmed Karim — an Alameddine crime clan member — repeatedly stomped on her stomach while yelling “I want you and the baby to die”.

He succeeded in killing their unborn child, Adeya, but Leticia survived.

Karim this month pleaded guilty in the NSW District Court to causing grievous bodily harm and aggravated sexual assault, and Leticia is speaking out because she wants her daughter to be remembered, and the true horror of his crime made public.

“This crime happened because he (Karim) didn’t want her to be known,” Leticia told The Daily Telegraph.

Leticia Chalmers sits by her daughter’s grave. Picture: Jeremy Piper

“I feel like Adeya deserves the recognition that comes with telling our story … and the crime that was committed deserves to be known too.”

Leticia and Karim went through primary school and high school together in Western Sydney, and began dating as teenagers.

Ahmed Karim (white T-shirt) stands with fellow alleged members and associates of the Alameddine crime clan including Noah Obeid, Trent Jeske and gang war victim Shady Kanj (front left). Picture: Supplied

In April 2021 she discovered she was pregnant, a time of much excitement for not only her, but her family.

But it was not a time of excitement for Karim, with court documents recording his exact words to Leticia: “Get f**kin rid of it”.

By June 2021 the pregnancy had divided their relationship, with Leticia telling Karim that she was happy to raise the child on her own while he was adamant having a baby would bring a “curse” on he and his family.

Text messages between Karim and Leticia relied on by police in evidence detail his horrifying attitude towards the situation, and his complete lack of regard for life.

Ahmed Karim has pleaded guilty to a shocking attack on his partner Leticia Chalmers that killed their unborn baby. Picture: Supplied

“Leticia you will make my God curse me,” he wrote.

“I don’t care if it kills you.

“Even if it’s a f**king Abortion.”

Leticia married Karim on September 10, 2021 under Islamic law, hoping it would appease him.

But court documents detail how over the next week he continued to make Leticia’s life a “living misery” and was furious at talk of a gender reveal party for a baby he did not want.

On Friday September 17, 2021, just hours before the party was due to start, Karim asked Leticia to come to his house to speak to him.

When Leticia walked in the house Karim kissed her on the cheek, but their conversations quickly turned to arguments.

Leticia visits her daughter Adeya’s grave every day. Picture: Jeremy Piper

She could feel her baby kicking inside her and began to cry, before turning her back to Karim in an effort to protect her foetus.

Karim attacked by reaching around his cowering pregnant partner, grabbing her stomach and lifting her up off the ground.

He then pushed her down and kicked her in the belly.

‘I WANT YOU AND THE BABY TO DIE’

He then stomped on her stomach, using “alternate feet and stepping downwards with his full force”, agreed fact sheets state, before he then put his knee on her stomach and “pressed down with all his weight”.

Karim then choked Leticia until she lost consciousness on the kitchen floor.

She was woken by him pouring water over her head, before he continued on with the attack and kicked her repeatedly again.

“I want you and the baby to die,” Karim said.

Karim will be sentenced in the NSW District Court in October. Picture: Supplied

Leticia said the attack had “ruined” her life. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Leticia made it outside and screamed for help, before collapsing as a neighbour ran over and rang Triple-0.

Dr Neil Athayde, who cared for Leticia at Westmead Private Hospital, told detectives the repeated attack on her stomach “may have caused separation of (the) placenta and caused baby to die due to lack of oxygen”.

When Leticia gave birth to Adeya she held a lifeless child in her arms.

A picture taken moments after Adeya’s birth and shown to The Daily Telegraph captured Leticia sobbing as she cuddled her deceased baby girl, gently wrapped in a hospital blanket.

Still she was insistent on having a proper burial for Adeya surrounded by people who would have loved her.

‘I’M LIVING, BUT I’M NOT ALIVE’

Leticia’s mother and other relatives like her grandmother Vicki and aunt Carli regularly join her at the grave, which is full of colour and even has a baby gargoyle watching over Adeya.

As she sits looking at the daughter she never got to know, this 21-year-old woman says she feels like her life has been “ruined”.

“I feel like I’m living, but I’m not alive,” Leticia said.

Police have previously alleged in court documents Karim was part of Sydney’s notorious Alameddine crime network and he is believed to have grown up with some of its members in the Guildford and Merrylands area.

Leticia’s mother, Christie, said things have never been the same since the day she arrived at Karim’s house to find her daughter on the front lawn, bleeding and with her stomach “deflated”.

“My daughter didn’t die in the attack, but part of her died,” she said. 

Karim, whose lawyer Abdul Saddik negotiated his plea deal, will be sentenced on October 17 on the two charges. The grievous bodily harm charge covers the death of the unborn baby.

A third offence of choking will be dealt with on a Form 1 meaning Judge Stephen Hanley will take it into account on sentencing, but it will not be on his criminal record.