Girl, two, ‘must be told her father was a murderer’

A JUDGE has ruled that an orphaned two-year-old girl must one day be told that her father murdered her mother before killing himself in jail.

Judge Carol Atkinson said it was essential the girl knows the truth about what happened to her parents, amid fears the killer’s family may not give her an accurate account.

The distressing family court case came after the mother, a 29-year-old hospital worker, was strangled by her husband, 34, at their London home in December 2016.

He had a history of domestic violence and hanged himself while on remand in prison three weeks later.

Judge Atkinson said the father’s relatives, who live outside Europe, want the little girl to be brought up by her two aunts. But the family are struggling to believe their son killed his wife, and are under the impression she had been radicalised.

The girl, referred to in court as NAA, was born in the UK and is currently in foster care.

In a written ruling at East London Family Court, the judge wrote: ‘It will be essential to NAA’s emotional welfare that she has a definitive narrative about her parents’ life here and how that came to an end.

‘Something in which she will have confidence and with which she can deflect rumour, or untruthful or just plain inaccurate accounts. There is evidence… that the paternal family in particular are struggling to come to terms with the suggestion that their son was responsible for killing his wife.

‘They may not have been given all of the information. They have been persuaded that the mother may have been radicalised.

‘It is suggested that somehow she was not behaving as their culture demands a wife should.

‘Whatever the reasons, she is not held in high regard, it would seem, in the home of the paternal family.

‘That would be concerning without more, but if this picture is also an inaccurate one it has implications for the emotional development of NAA.’

‘Given the suspicion that some of her family has regarding the motives of the police and social services it may not be sufficient for her to have the police report or an account from social services; she needs an account stamped with the authority of the court.’

The judge ruled that as the girl was British and had lived all her life here, the High Court should decide whether her future should be in the UK – with the possible severing of all links to her family – or in her parents’ birth country.