Father Charged with Cruelty Made Daughter Sign Contract to Never Get Fat, Court Hears

A father in the United Kingdom who allegedly made his daughter sign a life-long contract promising to never get fat is on trial for child cruelty and assault.

Rachid Khadla, 56, who denies the three counts of child cruelty and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm levelled against him, is alleged to have made daughter Amira sign a pledge reading, “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.”

Prosecutors allege Khadla hit his daughter with a spoon, punched her, and even threw a chair at her. Amira told the court that her “controlling” father decided what she could see, what she could wear, and what she could watch on TV.

It is alleged that Khadla abused his sons as well, including his youngest, Hicham, who has a learning disability.

“He punched Hicham to the chest a number of times and then pushed him onto his sister’s bed,” prosecutor Alex Krikler told Reading Crown Court, according to a Sun court report.

“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,” Krikler added. “Hicham 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,” Krikler said.

The prosecutor went on to describe more of the abuse that Hicham allegedly suffered.

“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,”Kirkler said.

“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.’ His father would tell him that he was weak,” he said.

The man’s eldest son, Karim, testified against his father, describing his home life as “like living under a dictatorship. My father was the dictator.”

Khadla’s wife of 27 years also gave evidence for the prosecution, saying: “The atmosphere at home was really tough, like walking on egg shells, it was never a happy home.

“There was always a feeling in the air that could be cut with a knife. It was Rachid’s attitude and aggression. One minute he was nice, then at the flick of a light he became a horrible person.”

For his part, Khadla claimed that he only became physical with his youngest son “in self-defence”, and that while he may have engaged in typical parental actions such as spankings when his children were young he was neither controlling nor physically abusive.

The trial continues.

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