I know why she did it, why she killed our lovely boy. The reason? It’s me
Father blames boy’s death on mum’s obsession
IT WAS ME SHE WANTED TO KILL, NOT HIM
The shattered father of Mikaeel Kular fears t he lit t le boy was beaten to death by his mother because he was a miniature version of his dad.
In his first interview, Zahid Saeed said he believes killer Rosdeep Adekoya couldn’t bear her son growing into a spitting image of the ex who dumped her.
The 34-year old described a controlling manipulator so obsessed with him that she craved revenge for years after their three-month fling in 2009.
He believes that was the reason for Adekoya taking their little boy’s life in January.
Zahid said: “She killed him because he was a miniature version of me and in doing that she was killing a part of me too.
“She was killing me and she was killing my legacy.
“Her obsession made her love me but then it made her hate and resent me and she would stop at nothing to hurt me for rejecting her.
“I think she killed Mikaeel because she couldn’t stand to see me in him every day. We look the same and we have the same character.
“My son was the innocent victim. I just wish she’d brought her anger down on me and not on him.”
Zahid, who lives with his wife and two daughters, was kept apart from Mikaeel in the two years before his death but is still wracked by guilt that he did not force Adekoya to let him see their son.
He said: “Every second of every day I wonder whether I could have stopped it, whether I could have done more. What if I had fought harder or been stronger? Would he still be alive?
“She played games for so long that she wore me down and I gave in. Then she did the one thing she knew would break me.
“She has created this nightmare for me and I will live in that forever but deep down I know her evil was the result of an obsession which led her to do things no one could understand.”
Chef Zahid, from Fife, was friends with Adekoya as a teenager but they had grown apart and he had married another woman.
It was only after a chance meeting between Zahid and
He would have grown up just like me. He was loving and kindhearted
Gemma Aldridge
Adekoya’s sister Pandeep that the pair resumed what was, at first, a platonic friendship.
What came next, though, would become the biggest regret of Zahid’s life. He began a 12-week fling with Adekoya – w ithout realising she had been obsessed with him since her teens.
He said: “To begin with, I was flattered by the attention. She told me she had been in love with me for years and even said she had been thinking about me on her wedding day.
“She said we were meant to be together and she only ever wanted to be with me.
“Looking back, I can’t believe I betrayed my wife for her and I don’t know what made me do it. I was weak. I have never regretted something so much.”
The relationship soon took a sinister turn as the level of A dekoy a’s obsession became clear.
Zahid said: “She would text me 20 or 30 times a day and if I didn’t reply she would get angry. She would ask where I was and demand a dated selfie for proof.
“My wife left me over the affair and I moved back in with my mother but Rosdeep would turn up on mum’s doorstep in the middle of the night to check I was there.
“I told her I couldn’t cope with the intensity but she threatened to kill herself.
“When I finally put my foot down and called it off, she even attempted suicide.
“I was devastated. I felt guilty and responsible but I couldn’t be with her. She needed help and I needed to try to get my family back. I loved my wife. I had made a terrible mistake.
“Then the week after she came out of hospital, she found out she was pregnant. That was when things became very difficult.”
The pregnancy gave obsessive Adekoya what she had always wanted – an excuse to keep Zahid in her life forever. He said: “The mind games really started whe she found out she was pregnan with twins.
“She realised if she had them then she had a part of me.
“I am a twin myself so I wa happy to be having twins. I wasn’t ideal that it was with he but I loved the idea that two o my children would enjoy th same special bond we had.
“I thought that even if thei mother made problems in the lives, they would always hav each other – but she has mad sure even that won’t happen.
“I love being a father. I have tw daughters with my wife and I lov looking after them and caring fo them. I wanted Mikaeel to be part of that.
“When I held my son in my arm for the first time, I thought abou the future, I imagined being th one to talk to him about his firs crush, his first girlfriend, his exam results.
“If times wer hard with Rosie would just thin about a futur when he woul be old enough t understand tha I loved him.
“I alway imagined on day he woul come knockin on my door an I would be th one to suppor him, to tell him off, the one t be there for him.
“I know he would hav grown up just like me. H was loving and kind- hearted Now no one will ever know because she has robbed him o his future.”
After the twins were born Adekoya began to make i increasingly difficult for Zahi to be in their lives.
Zahid said: “I was helpless. Sh refused to put me on the birt certificate so I had no parenta rights.
“I would turn up on her door step with huge bags of nappie and formula just to try to d something or be involved i some way but she slammed th door in my face time and again
“It was worth it for the happ moments. I remember the firs time I held Mikaeel. It wa magical. He was so small bu