Father Makes Daughter Sign Contract To Stay Thin, Never To Grow Fat

A controlling father made his daughter sign a life-long ‘contract to stay thin’ promising to never get fat and weighed her almost daily, a jury has been told.

Rachid Khadla, 56, is on trial accused of child cruelty and assault, which he denies.

The father-of-three is alleged to have ruled his family with terrifying discipline which ended with him being arrested.

A jury heard how he strangled his son and beat his offspring with wooden spoons if he considered they had misbehaved.

His wife of 27 years Sarah supported the police prosecution, claiming he had a ‘quick temper’ and would get angry for no reason towards their three children, who are now grown up.

Daughter Amira, now 23, told a court how her ‘controlling’ father decided what she could wear, who she could see, who she could talk to, and what she could watch on television.

Prosecuting counsel Alex Krikler claimed: ‘The defendant was very conscious about his own fitness and diet, regularly attending the gym and eating healthily.

‘His daughter’s weight was a constant issue. In fact, all the children would be regularly weighed by the defendant to make sure that they had not put on weight. ‘In 2012 the defendant made Amira sign the following document: “I, Amira Khadla, will never let myself get fat. I will do lots of exercise to make sure I will never get fat, even until I die”.’

She told the jury she recalled having a chair thrown at her when she was nine which left a lump behind her ear and that her father lied to doctors, claiming the injury was caused by a football. Amira said she was ‘fearful’ of her father, who would calling her stupid and a failure, the jury heard.

Besides the contract to stay thin, the court also heard that the husband was ‘aggravated’ by his youngest son Hicham who struggled with some learning difficulties. On October 16 2019, the schoolboy was carrying out household chores, cleaning his sister’s bedroom, when the defendant allegedly attacked him for being too slow.

Mr Krikler said: ‘He punched Hicham to the chest a number of times and then pushed him onto his sister’s bed. He then placed both hands around his neck and strangled him for quite some time, five to 10 seconds, before pulling him up, punching him to the chest and walking away.

‘Hisham had tried to say “stop” but had been unable to speak. He could not breathe and although the marks left by the strangulation were relatively minor, the incident was extremely frightening.’

The next morning, moments before the family had to leave to attend his sister’s graduation from university ceremony, Hicham is said to have told his mother that his father had ‘crossed a line.’

While his family were celebrating, Hisham went to school where he confided in his closest friends. The boys disclosed to their teachers what had happened and the staff informed police. Khadla was arrested later that evening, a judge heard. Following his father’s arrest, Hitcham told police this was not an isolated incident.

Mr Krikler told the jury: ‘For the most minor of transgressions at home, he said that he would regularly get “the spoon.” ‘His father would make him put his hands out and would smack the palms of his hands with a wooden spoon. He also described how his father would push and punch him and on occasion throw things at him.

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‘The abuse was not just physical. The defendant would also threaten extreme violence, that he would “splatter his brains across the ceiling and kill him.”

Besides the contract with the daughter to stay thin, the court was told that the eldest son, Karim, also recounted the cruelty he suffered as a child, remembering ‘the control, the temper, and the violence’ and being punched to the head so forcefully when he was aged 15 years that it knocked him over.

The court heard that as an adult after he had left home, the 26-year-old had severed all ties with his father and family before the allegations came to light. After his arrest, the defendant denied strangling his son, instead claiming he was acting in self-defence.

The prosecutor said: ‘When asked how he would discipline his children, he said when they were younger, he would smack them on the bottom, but otherwise he said that he had never beaten or physically chastised them.

‘He denied threatening his children or physically hurting them, saying that he sometimes shouted, but that was it. He denied controlling his children.’ Khadla, of Windsor in Berkshire, denies three counts of child cruelty and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The trial continues.

Metro UK

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