The officer didn't charge the defendant with murder years ago because the victim didn't want him to

An Ottawa police officer investigating a report that Hamid Ayoub held a knife to his wife's neck – eight years before he murdered her and stabbed their daughter – said at his murder trial she did not charge him because the complainant did not want to do this – although the police are obliged to press charges regardless of what the victims want.

Hamid Ayoub, 63, is charged with the first-degree murder of Hanadi Mohamed, 50, and the attempted murder of his then 22-year-old and now 26-year-old daughter on June 15, 2021.

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

The defense admits that Ayoub murdered Mohamed and stabbed her daughter, but argues that the requirements for first-degree murder and attempted murder are not met. Prosecutors Louise Tansey and Cecilia Bouzane rejected Ayoub's guilty pleas to second-degree murder and aggravated assault.

Hamid Ayoub, now 63, is on trial for first-degree murder and attempted murder in the knife attacks on his ex Mohamed and their 22-year-old daughter. (Ottawa Police Department)

Weeks later, police called 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 heard her children screaming for help. It was one of several abuses inflicted by Ayoub Mohamed that the children witnessed.

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

Police were not called immediately after the incident. The daughter told the jury that she believed this was because an upcoming family trip to Sudan for the summer holidays depended on the signatures of both parents.

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

No charges were filed because the victim did not want this

Acting Sgt. Erin McMullan, then an investigator in the Ottawa Police Service's intimate partner violence unit, was assigned to the case. She testified earlier this week that she interviewed Mohamed with the help of an Arabic interpreter and noted minor discrepancies between what Mohamed told her and a statement from another officer who had interviewed Mohamed at the airport three days earlier.

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

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

McMullan agreed with Abou El Hassan that police do indeed have a duty to press charges in domestic violence cases when they have legitimate reasons to do so, regardless of whether the complainant wants the police to press charges or not.

“Honestly, could I have pushed through this and pressed charges? I certainly could have gone through with it and filed charges,” McMullan testified.

“Trust me, I am very, very aware of this decision that I have made. But… I chose to give her power back. I chose not to bring them.” [Ayoub] because I didn't want to make the situation worse for her if she felt like she had it under control at that point. And I used this inconsistency in her statement to articulate that I do not make this accusation. And at the end of the day, I have to carry this, as do Miss Mohamed and her entire family.

Neither the children nor Ayoub were invited 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 knife attacks, Mohamed called the police after Ayoub approached her in the parking lot of a shopping center near her home. She had left him about nine months earlier.

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

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

“He replied, and I quote, 'You left the house, you took the children,'” Nash told the jury. Ayoub also told Mohamed that he knew where she lived.

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

The trial at the Ottawa Courthouse continues next week. (Matthew Kupfer/CBC)

No charges filed

Nash testified that no charges were filed. There was no direct threat, attack 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 house to get his side of the story, warning him not to contact Mohamed or go to her home, and telling him that the incident would be documented.

He greeted officers at his home, which contained many professional-quality 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 and said he had asked her if the family would travel to Sudan together to discuss their separation and possible divorce.

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

Ayoub's trial continues next week.