Widow’s anger at 18 years for killer
The children now know there are bad people FIDAA SAMMOUR ON IMPACT OF MURDER ON CHILDREN
THE devastated widow of murdered security guard Mohammed Abu Sammour has condemned a sentence totalling 24 years in prison for his killers as “not enough”.
Scott Pearson, 22, and Ryan Hunter, 28, were sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday following the murder of Mohammed, 49, in October last year.
Pearson was handed a life sentence with a minimum of 18 years in prison after he was convicted of killing the dad of four at a housing development site in Newarthill, Lanarkshire.
Hunter was sentenced to six years after he pled guilty to the reduced charge of culpable homicide.
But Mohammed’s widow Fidaa said the prospect of Pearson being released when he is still a relatively young man filled her with dread.
She said: “It is not enough punishment for him. When I heard life in prison, I expected more than 18 years.
“He could be released in his 40s and be free to do more bad things to my family, to other people. I would not feel safe. They will both be walking the streets again, back in society. They can hurt other people and that does not give me confidence.”
Mohammed, 49, had been killed during what should have been a routine shift as a security guard supervisor, leaving Fidaa and their four children locked in grief.
Mohammed was left “partially scalped” and with leg and rib injuries after being dragged from his van, hit with a brick and reversed over while he lay unconscious.
He had been set upon after confronting an 18-year-old – who cannot be named for legal reasons – who had used a knuckle duster to smash a window in his van.
He died from chest, head and pelvic wounds.
It emerged Pearson had a violent criminal record stretching back to when he was 12 and had only been freed from prison eight days earlier.
Sentencing, Lord Burns told him: “Mr Sammour must have been dragged for a considerable distance while trapped under the van.
“It is plain that you were fully aware that you had reversed over him.
“You then fled the scene, leaving others to give help to Mr Sammour as he lay dying.”
Hunter had pled guilty on the basis he did not take any “physical action” to stop Pearson or get out the van to help the victim.
Lord Burns told him: “You could have detached yourself from the crime long before. Along with your friends, you left Mr Sammour to his fate.”
A background social work report on Pearson found no indication he felt remorse.
Fidaa, a computer scientist, said: “He showed no emotion in court. If he had any emotion, it was of badness towards us.”
With each day that passes, the pain of Fidaa’s loss intensifies. She said: “Whenever I try to have a fresh start in my mind, the memories come back to me about the murder. That’s the hard thing. There are so many conflicting emotions.”
Palestinians raised in Jordan’s capital of Amman, the couple had known each other since they were children. Fidaa said: “Mohammed was a quiet and friendly man and he always talked so positively about Scotland.
“I did not think that such a man could be murdered in this country.
“I loved him, absolutely. He was everything to me. He was my family, my husband, the friend I turned to day and night. He was my Google, my fixer, the person I phoned if I was lost, my interpreter when I couldn’t find an English word.
“He really was everything. Every day is a challenge without him.”
The couple had four boys, now aged 11, nine, seven and two. Fidaa explained that the men who killed their father were being sentenced yesterday.
But she said: “The children have lost confidence in their safety. They now know that there are bad people in the world. They now know they must always be careful.”
Yesterday, as the sentences were passed, Fidaa was flanked by her lawyer Aamer Anwar and more than 40 men and women from the local Muslim community, who had come to show their solidarity. Fidaa said: “It has really helped for them to be there in the sentencing, caring that we get justice as a family.”
After his trial, Hunter wrote to Fidaa asking for forgiveness and apologising for Mohammed’s death.
She said: “I respect the letter but I am not sure whether they were just words or it was genuinely how he felt.”
Asked how she felt about Pearson, Fidaa shook her head and said: “I cannot find the words to describe him.”
A statement read by Anwar added: “These killers showed a barbaric disregard for his life.”
The Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC was also urged to “do his duty” to help bring to justice a third person, named by the judge as participating in the assault of Mohammed.
Anwar said: “The fight for justice is not over.”