Lebanon man knew of missing tot: inquest

A man in Lebanon was asking about the disappearance of a little girl the day before a Sydney toddler was snatched from her bed, a coronial inquest has heard.

Rahma El Dennaoui was about 20 months old when she was taken from her bed in the early hours of November 10 2005.

She had been sleeping alongside her sisters in the front room of her family’s Lurnea home in Sydney’s southwest.

The Glebe Coroner’s Court heard on Friday that a relative in Sydney placed a call to her sister in the Lebanese town of Dayranbouh, the hometown of Rahma’s mother Alyaa, the day before Rahma disappeared.

Fatima Al-Sayed was speaking to her sister when her cousin Mustapha asked, “Is there a missed little girl from our village?”

Fatima’s mother, Samira Al-Sayed, who was present during the phone call, told the inquest he had asked specifically about a girl who was about two years-old.

Fatima Al-Sayed said when pressed, Mustafa said he had heard about the missing girl from a man named Ahmed Rachid El-Nabouche, a religion teacher from the town.

But the brother-in-law of Mr El-Nabouche told the inquest the man knew nothing about the little girl, and any confusion over a reference to a missing child had come from a joke about him losing his son for an hour at a supermarket.

The inquest into Rahma’s fate has been told of rumours the girl was abducted by a childless uncle and taken to Lebanon.

Meanwhile, a restaurant owner who knew Rahma’s family has told the inquest he had overheard a conversation in which it was alleged her father, Hosyan El-Dennaoui, could have killed her.

He had heard men saying “he had a bad temper and he hit her” and that he may have killed her, as well as a reference to a farm near Goulburn or Queanbeyan.

However, he said he had dismissed the talk as gossip.

The inquest continues.

Views: 0

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes