"Your treatment of them has been appalling over the years"
Syed Rahman, aged 42, a father of four children from Manchester has been jailed for three years after he threatened to kill his wife and behaved in a ‘domineering’ and ‘controlling’ way towards her and the family.
At the trial at Manchester Crown Court, it was revealed that Rahman, a taxi driver, told his daughters that if they called the police by dialling 999 and reported his ‘appalling’ treatment of them, the police would ‘find their mother’s corpse’.
Rahman kept the family in constant fear and he had disallowed his wife from going shopping and controlled how long she went out for if she was allowed to go anywhere by him.
When quizzed by the probation service about this, he said he was scared his wife may be racially attacked with acid if she was out in public, so he controlled her movements to protect her.
Rahman’s wife received no money from him apart from the child support benefit payments they got.
The court heard that Rahman threatened to kill his wife because she had given a daughter of theirs a drink without his asking him first.
He began angrily shouting at his wife with the children present after the row over the daughter’s drink at their home in Burnage, Manchester.
His wife retaliated and said she would leave if he carried on in this way.
He then said he would kill her if she or the daughters called the police against him.
Rahman also threatened to ‘cut up’ other members of the family as well and said that ‘police wouldn’t find their bodies’.
The oldest daughter is a teenager and the youngest is a baby. Full of fear and being scared of their father, the three elder daughters went upstairs and stayed there, not even eating their evening dinner.
The court was told that the girls had a ‘genuine fear’ that their mother would be grievously hurt or killed by their father.
Rahman threatened his wife with a knife the following day.
It was after this the police got involved when one of the children told their school about what was going on at home and about the threatening behaviour of their father.
In the past, the police had been called to the house a number of times too.
Once when Rahman reacted angrily when his wife asked if she could have driving lessons. Another time, when he got into a rage because of his wife serving their children a meal much later than he wanted.
Rahman was arrested in May 2018 and was taken away from the house and the court heard how his wife felt a ‘huge weight had been lifted’ with him no longer there to torment her and the children with his domineering and threatening behaviour.
Judge Richard Mansell QC who sentenced Rahman to jail for a threat to kill and common assault said:
“She really had no way out of this abusive marriage other than to call the police and bring you to justice, as she now has done.
“Your treatment of them has been appalling over the years.
“In my judgement, you face an uphill battle to form any meaningful relationship with your children.”
Rahman sobbed and cried throughout the hearing to which the judge commented that he was ‘wrapped with self-pity’.
In addition to the jail sentence, Rahman was given an indefinite restraining order. Stopping him from having any contact with the wife or children whatsoever.
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