Wannabe jihadist in Supreme Court over brutal killing of wife in front of children
A RADICALISED Broadmeadows Muslim who removed his wife’s right eye before slaughtering her in front of their children told police it was “normal” behaviour in the Middle East.
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A RADICALISED Muslim who removed his wife’s right eye before slaughtering her in front of their children told police it was “normal” behaviour in the Middle East.
The brutal killer, who cannot be named to protect the identities of his three children, is facing life behind bars after he pleaded guilty to the horrific killing in June last year.
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The Supreme Court heard on Friday how the Broadmeadows man had set out on a “prolonged and vicious” knife attack on his wife at their family home.
He removed her right eye in what is believed to be inspired by the Islamist one-eyed antichrist Dajjal, and cut off two of her fingers while she was still alive.
She bled to death after suffering deep lacerations across her face, neck, arms, legs, back, hips and genitalia.
Her butchered body, wrapped in a doona with cling wrap and electrical tape, was found dumped in grassland in Dallas a month later.
In his police interview, when an officer said it was one of the worst cases he had come across, the man replied: “Grow a gut for it as in the Middle East it’s normal.”
Told that his family did not condone this behaviour, he said: “F--- them, f--- everyone. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
When it was suggested he had put his children through hell, he said: “If they’ve gone through hell, they’ll grow up to be stronger.”
His children — two boys, aged 6 and 4, and a girl, 2 — described to police the bloody scenes and how they watched as their father “slaughtered” their mother with a big knife.
“All of her body was blood, nothing but blood,” one of the boys said.
They also detailed how he cut out her right eye and flushed it down the toilet.
“Mummy is like the antichrist,” one of the children remarked.
Prosecutor Sharn Coombes said the removal of his wife’s eye was indicative of the man’s religious beliefs and his “extreme interpretation of his own religion”.
The court heard the man, who was acquitted several years ago in a major terror trial where he was among several men accused of planning terror attacks, wanted to move to Syria to fight with jihad.
He once sliced his wife’s hand when she refused to read the book of sharia law.
He also isolated her from her family and friends, did not allow her to leave the house without him, and forced her to wear a burqa, only showing her eyes.
When she started working from home as a seamstress, he wouldn’t allow her to repair men’s clothing. He also would not allow his children to go to school, watch TV, or speak English.
“He wanted to teach them about guns, jihad and the war,” Ms Coombes said.
Their home had just bare mattresses in the bedrooms, a milk crate in the loungeroom, scribble on the walls and smashed windows.
Defence lawyer Scott Johns argued that the man was in a drug-induced psychosis and had a documented history of psychotic disturbance.
“What your honour is dealing with is a person who had a very disturbed approach to his thinking at the time,” Mr Johns told Justice Lex Lasry.
“He became convinced that his wife had been sent by god to kill him.”
He believed that her family had used black magic on him, Mr Johns said.
Ms Coombes asked that the maximum penalty of life without parole be imposed. But Mr Johns said the man should be given a head sentence with a chance at parole.
The case will return to court next Wednesday, before he will be sentenced at a later date.