A woman whose partner murdered their eight-year-old daughter in front of her has said it “haunts” her that she was unable to “save” her.
Aisha al-Katib (32) has said “not a minute goes by” that she doesn’t see what happened to her daughter Malika al-Katib in her final moments at the hands of Muhammed al-Shaker al-Tamimi and she will “never be able to take that out of my head”.
Tamimi (35) of Lower William Street, New Ross, Co Wexford, pleaded guilty last October to murdering Malika al-Katib (8) on December 1st, 2024, at Lower William Street in New Ross. He pleaded guilty to a second charge that on the same date and at the same location, he attempted to murder Ms Katib.
Tamini was sentenced to life in prison for his crime on Monday. Mr Justice Paul McDermott imposed a consecutive 10-year sentence on Tamimi for Ms Katib’s attempted murder. He will serve the 10-year sentence before beginning the life sentence.
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During the attack, Malika had told her father to stop stabbing her mother before he grabbed the eight year old and turned the knife on her.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Liveline on Wednesday, Ms Katib said her daughter was upstairs asleep and ran downstairs trying to intervene.
“That haunts me,” said Ms Katib. “She is an absolute hero. She’s my hero. She saved me and it haunts me that I should have been the one being able to save her. But through my injuries, I was left paralysed on the ground. I couldn’t move.”
Ms Katib said it was appalling that “in this day and age in Ireland, that someone that murders the most innocent” could end up serving just 12 years in prison and the law needed to be changed.
“I think we need it and if what happened to Malika saves one child, if I change the law from someone committing the most brutal attack on children, then I will be happy to know that my Malika would be proud of me,” she said.
Ms Katib said her daughter was in first class at New Ross Educate Together National School and was full of “energy, life, compassion and love”.
“There’s not a person that met Malika that she didn’t touch,” she said.
Ms Katib said they were “best friends” and there wasn’t a time when they were separated and that her daughter couldn’t “sit still” and was always doing cartwheels or dancing.
Ms Katib said Tamimi had never shown any remorse for their daughter’s murder and that she would not be able to cope with his release from prison.
Tamimi, who was born in Kuwait, met Ms Katib in Belfast in 2015. After time apart from 2017, he came to Ireland August 2024, where Ms Katib agreed to let him stay with her and Malika in New Ross.
The court heard in the months before the murder, Tamimi began contacting Ms Katib, telling her he was concerned that Malika was not behaving in accordance with the Islamic faith.
On December 1st, 2024, in New Ross, he accused Ms Katib of sleeping with someone else and hit her on the head with her phone. She decided to return to her mother’s home but as she tried to take her keys from her jacket, Tamimi ran at her with a knife in his hand and began stabbing her.
