‘Pre-meditated’

A Carlisle accountant made “disturbing” online searches about burying a person alive in the weeks before he brutally murdered his wife — then buried her in a hole in the backyard of the family house.

Carlisle accountant Ahmed Dawood Seedat with his wife Fahima Yusuf.

A Carlisle accountant made “disturbing” online searches about burying a person alive in the weeks before his dead wife was found in a hole in their backyard – which a contractor dug for him days before he brutally murdered her.

Ahmed Dawood Seedat pleaded guilty to killing his wife Fahima Yusuf at their Carlisle home on August 31 last year, while their five-year-old and two-year-old children were asleep their bedrooms.

Four days later, police discovered Ms Yusuf’s body in a shallow grave in their backyard.

During a sentencing hearing in the Supreme Court this morning, prosecutor Nicholas Cogin said Seedat had been planning to kill the mother of his children for weeks.

Mr Cogin said there was evidence Seedat first began contemplating his crime on July 24 — six weeks before the discovery of Ms Yusuf’s body — searching ‘burying a cat’ and ‘cremating a body’.

About a week before the murder, Seedat searched ‘burying someone aliv (sic)’.

Mr Cogin said Seedat told various stories to Ms Yusuf’s loved ones to explain her absence, telling her sister she had left the marriage to go overseas and his children and their neighbours she had gone to England for eye surgery.

Seedat had asked a friend to call Ms Yusuf’s eastern states-based father and impersonate a WA police officer to assure him she was OK.

Mr Cogin said there was no evidence Ms Yusuf intended to leave the marriage, and said he murdered his wife after he became disinterested in her.

The prosecutor said Seedat’s claims he snapped during an argument after he was “sexually confronted” by his wife should be rejected, saying it was a pre-meditated murder.

He pointed to his relationship with his wife’s sister and the thousands of text messages between them – saying they showed he intended to progress his relationship with her after his wife’s death”.

He said there were internet searches asking “can you marry your brother-in-law” and “can you marry your brother-in-law if sister dead Muslim”.

The court was told on the night he killed his wife, Seedat had texted the sister-in-law to say Ms Yusuf had “left” – and had her come to the home to console him.

“In fact he had just murdered her sister and buried her in a hole next to the laundry door,” Mr Cogin said.

It was not suggested the sister-in-law had romantic feelings towards Seedat or was involved in his crime.

The court was told those close to Ms Yusuf were “alerted to the oddity of the situation quite early” and after Ms Yusuf’s father lodged a missing person’s report, detectives pursued Seedat, who eventually confessed to the killing.

He pointed detectives to his wife’s backyard grave, which he had paid a landscaper to dig on August 27 under the pretence he wanted to install a pool for the children.

He later said he also wanted to install swings – plans Mr Cogin said did not make sense as the hole was in a thoroughfare and close to a fence.

A post-mortem examination could not find Ms Yusuf’s precise cause of death, but found she had multiple lacerations and bruising to her scalp, with Seedat telling police he inflicted the injuries with a wheel brace.

He later admitted he strangled or suffocated the woman by placing pressure on her neck, and the examination found Ms Yusuf had sand in her mouth and throat, but not in her airways.

“The State can’t say whether she was dead when she was buried, or whether she was still alive,” Mr Cogin said.

“The issue on that one is there is that disturbing search in the internet — ‘burying someone aliv’ (sic).”

Mr Cogin said Justice Bruno Fiannaca should find Seedat had “credibility problems” and should be cautious when believing anything he said – saying he was facing charges of robbing some of his financial clients of almost $6 million.

He said that “legal hurdle” coupled with his attachment to his wife’s sister and his abnormal “personality traits” led him to kill his wife.

Defence lawyer Bernard Standish said he began stealing from clients in 2016 due to a gambling problem – saying he would place bets worth hundreds of thousands on horse races and sporting events.

Mr Standish said there was a “clear disconnect” in their relationship, saying they would be “mean” to each other during the day and “demands for sexual activity” at night “which he believed couldn’t be met”.

He said there was no suggestion the couple’s children were aware of what happened to their mother, saying there was a victim impact statement which said they still do not know why they will never see their mother again.

Seedat accepted his fatal attack was “sustained and must have been terrifying” and he was ashamed of what he had done, Mr Standish said.

He also accepted he had betrayed Ms Yusuf’s sister and that his children were now orphaned.

“There is not a day that goes by that he doesn’t think about what he has done,” Mr Standish said.

Justice Fiannaca will sentence Seedat on May 27.

Originally published as ‘Pre-meditated’