FAMILY’S HELL OVER YOUNG
THE family of murder victim Sinead Wooding have told of their fear that they may never know the full truth behind her horrific death.
Speaking for the first time since she was stabbed and battered to death by her husband and the woman they suspect was his lover, Sinead’s sister Katie McKenzie said: “No one deserves to die like that – but now she’s our angel.”
Murderous duo Akshar Ali and Yasmin Ahmed are now serving life for killing mum-of-four Sinead, 26, dumping her body in woods and setting it ablaze.
But Katie, 33, and cousin Alex Rhodes want to put the murder behind them and focus on the joy she found in being a mum. She left four children under the age of ten.
Katie said: “We want her to be remembered for the way she adored her children and the way she brought happiness to the room whenever she walked in.
“She could make anybody feel like they really were somebody. From a young age she was tomboyish and cheeky but she had a heart of gold and was very caring.
“She loved ladybirds and butterflies and was the backbone to close friends. She could wrap people round her little finger with her big puppy eyes and dimples.”
With the seven-year age gap between them, Katie was as much a mum as a sister to Sinead growing up, as their mother Catrina suffered from ill health.
But in later years they stopped talking as tragically Sinead ended up in the clutches of the controlling man who would eventually murder her.
And although Ali seemed like a nice guy on the surface, Katie says she had a bad feeling about him from the start.
ABUSE
She recalled: “Everything was so put on and I could always tell something wasn’t right.
“He played the doting husband and the doting daddy, always with the children.
“It was his tone of voice sometimes, the way she looked at him. He’d had her by herself and he had isolated her.”
Sinead never confided in Katie about the shocking domestic abuse she was suffering, which was revealed at Ali and Ahmed’s trial.
But the court heard she had been preparing to leave her husband – and she was convinced he was having an affair with his co-accused.
Katie said: “I last saw her when she came to stay for the weekend. She said she didn’t want to go home. My sister didn’t like Yasmin, she didn’t like the way she and her husband spoke to each other.
“She definitely suspected something was going on but hadn’t any proof. They still deny having an affair to this day and we may never know the truth.”
Cousin Alex, 44, said: “He used to finish work and go to Yasmin’s. He was there all the time. Sinead must have felt abandoned. Imagine if your husband was constantly with another woman.”
As Katie and Alex spoke they dabbed away tears and exchanged treasured memories.
Sinead’s mum Catrina, who has been left shattered by the murder just over a year ago, was too distraught to