The grandmother of a baby girl who was murdered and cut up by her father says the killer should “rot in hell” and never get $3000 compensation for being fed vegetables in jail.
Helen Blackwell said her granddaughter Chahleen, who was killed by her father Raymond Akhtar Ali in 1998, would have been 15 next month if she had lived.
Mrs Blackwell said although her daughter Amanda now was happily married and had children, she still missed her little girl.
“Chahleen is the only daughter she ever had,” Mrs Blackwell said.
Ali, a Muslim, was awarded the $3000 discrimination compensation because for four months at Maryborough Correctional Centre he was fed a vegetarian diet, instead of halal food.
He was sentenced to life in prison in 2000, after he bashed his newborn daughter to death, dismembered her and buried her body on a property near his Logan Village home.
Mrs Blackwell said she hoped the State Government would win an appeal in the Court of Appeal, announced yesterday by Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie.
Mr Bleijie said the Government had preliminary legal advice it had “good prospects” of success in an appeal against “monster” Ali’s compensation award.
“We will be doing everything we can to ensure this matter is sorted out,” Mr Bleijie said.
He said Premier Campbell Newman and other Queenslanders were “shocked and appalled” at the compensation order.
Mr Bleijie said it would cost more than $3000 to appeal the order, but said it was a matter of principle.
“He’s bitching because he didn’t get meat,” Mrs Blackwell said of Ali. “I can’t claim compensation. I still suffer from the loss of my granddaughter.”
Mrs Blackwell said Amanda had been only 20 when she had Chahleen and the loss of her baby had had “a hell of an effect” on her.
“It’s coming up to her 15th birthday,” Mrs Blackwell said. “Every year there is a birthday without her. I miss her and my daughter misses her,” Mrs Blackwell said.
Amanda Blackwell became pregnant to Ali, a butcher, while working for him and living in his house with Ali’s wife and son.
Mrs Blackwell believes her “inexperienced and naive” daughter, who didn’t know how to protect herself, was “brainwashed” into becoming Ali’s sex slave.
Blackwell was found guilty of manslaughter in 2000. Her four-year jail sentence was suspended after nine months.
The State Government has to pay Ali’s compensation into a victim trust fund, but he can get the money if there are no claims from victims, child support agencies or for any debts he owes.