The officer didn’t charge the accused with murder years ago because the victim didn’t want to

An Ottawa police officer who investigated a report that Hamid Ayoub held a knife to his wife’s neck — eight years before he killed her and stabbed their daughter — told his murder trial that she didn’t charge him because the prosecutor wouldn’t that she did so – despite the fact that the police are obliged to press charges regardless of what the victims want.

Hamid Ayoub, 63, is charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Hanadi Mohamed, 50, and the attempted murder of his daughter, who was 22 at the time and is now 26, on June 15, 2021.

He pleaded not guilty in Ottawa Superior Court at the start of his trial on September 16.

The defense admits that Ayoub killed Mohamed and stabbed their daughter, but argues that the bar for first-degree murder and attempted murder was not met. Prosecutors Louise Tansey and Cecilia Bouzane rejected Ayoub’s guilty pleas to murder and aggravated assault.

Police called weeks later about the 2013 incident

Last week the jury heard that in 2013 the couple’s daughter saw Ayoub standing behind her mother and holding a knife to her throat after Mohamed shouted at her children for help. It was one of a series of abuses inflicted on Mohamed by Ayoub, which the children had witnessed.

He said, “I’m going to kill you” in Arabic, the daughter testified. CBC News has agreed not to name her to protect her mental health.

The police were not called immediately after it happened. The daughter told the jury she believes this was because an upcoming family trip to Sudan for the summer holidays was dependent on the signatures of both parents.

But when the family flew back from Sudan in September, Mohamed and the children hid from Ayoub at the Ottawa airport and Mohamed contacted police.

No charges were filed because the victim didn’t want to

Acting Sgt. Erin McMullan, then a detective in the Ottawa Police Service’s intimate partner violence unit, was assigned the case. She testified earlier this week that she interviewed Mohamed with the help of an Arabic interpreter, and found minor inconsistencies between what Mohamed told her and a statement prepared by another officer who interviewed Mohamed at the airport three days earlier.

Mohamed also told McMullan that she did not want Ayoub to be charged.

“She was incredibly scared in her statement to me at the end,” McMullan testified under cross-examination by co-defense attorney Omar Abou El Hassan. “She had a lot of different reasons why this would make things much worse for her.”

McMullan agreed with Abou El Hassan that the police are actually obliged to press charges in cases of domestic violence if they have reasonable grounds to do so, regardless of whether the complainant wants the police to press charges or not.

“Honestly, could I have penetrated that and filed charges? I absolutely could have penetrated that and filed charges,” McMullan testified.

‘Believe me, I am very aware of the decision I made. But… I chose to give her power back. [Ayoub] because I didn’t want to make the situation worse for her if she felt like she was in control of the situation at the time. And I used that inconsistency in her statement to make it clear that I had not made that accusation. And in the end, I have to bear that, just like Miss Mohamed and her whole family.”

Neither the children nor Ayoub were brought in for an interview. When McMullan spoke to Mohamed 10 days later, Mohamed said she was safe, happy and not afraid, the jury heard.

‘You left the house, you took the children with you’

Years later, on May 19, 2021, about a month before the stabbings, Mohamed called the police after Ayoub approached her in the parking lot of a shopping plaza close to her home. She had left him about nine months earlier.

“We could tell right away that she was scared,” said Const. Mercedes Nash, one of the responding officers, testified this week.

Mohamed told Nash that Ayoub parked in the shopping plaza parking lot, walked up to her and said hello. Mohamed told Ayoub she didn’t want to talk to him, Nash testified, as she reviewed her notes from the day.

“He responded, and I quote, ‘You left the house, you took the kids with you,’” Nash told the jury. Ayoub also told Mohamed that he knew where she lived.

“She actually started yelling for help … when he said this to her, trying to get help from other people because she clearly took it as a threat,” the officer testified. At that point, Ayoub walked to his vehicle and drove away.

No charges filed

Nash testified that no charges were filed. There was no direct threat, assault or repeated contact, and under cross-examination by co-defense attorney Leonardo Russomanno, Nash testified that police did not have sufficient evidence that Ayoub was watching or following Mohamed.

Mohamed asked how she could get a restraining order, and Nash described the process.

Later that day, police went to Ayoub’s home to hear his side of the story, to warn him not to contact Mohamed or go to her home, and to tell him that the incident was being documented.

He welcomed officers into his home, which had many professional paintings, and told them he had gone to the square to pick up hangers for paintings he had sold, Nash testified. He denied telling Mohamed that he knew where she lived, saying he asked her if the family would go to Sudan together to discuss their separation and possible divorce.

Ayoub told officers that Mohamed had persuaded their children not to live with him, suggesting she would turn the children against him. He said he was afraid of Mohamed but did not respond when police asked if she was threatening or attacking, Nash testified.

The trial against Ayoub will continue next week.