A father threatened to disown his daughter over religious differences just months before she fatally stabbed her mother and tried to kill him, a court has been told.Kaihana Tahseen Hussain, now 20, has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court in Brisbane to the murder of her mother, 41-year-old Shaheda Hussain, and the attempted murder of her father, Dr Muhammad Hussain, now 52, at Southport on the evening of October 9, 2006. It's alleged she attacked them because they wouldn't let her move to Sydney to be with her boyfriend or allow her to convert from Islam to Christianity.
On the second day of her trial, the court was told Hussain first told her father she wanted to convert from Islam to Christianity in June 2006. Giving evidence in court on Wednesday, Dr Hussain said she told him that it was because she wanted to move to Sydney to be with her Christian boyfriend, 20-year-old Ben Brady.
Dr Hussain, a devout Muslim who was the president of an Islamic association in South Australia at the time, said he threatened to disown her if she carried out her plan. "I asked her later about him and she told me that he's a Christian ... and at the end she told me if necessary she would convert to Christianity," Dr Hussain said. "I told her that if you convert then you would not find me as your father." Dr Hussain said he was "very angry" at the time, but his daughter later apologised and they made up.
The court was told she ran away to Sydney to see Mr Brady less than a fortnight later. Dr Hussain said the family tracked her down and convinced her to return to Adelaide, where they were living at the time. He said his daughter and wife then travelled to their native Bangladesh for a wedding, and that he packed up their home and moved to the Gold Coast for a fresh start. He told the court he collected them from the airport on October 7, and they spent a pleasant day exploring the Gold Coast and visiting schools and universities.
Two days later, on October 9, Hussain's mother bled to death on the loungeroom floor of their rented unit after being stabbed once in the abdomen. The crown alleges Hussain viciously attacked both her parents, but the defence is claiming Dr Hussain was responsible for the attack. Blood and footprints found in the kitchen were identified in court on Wednesday as belonging to Dr Hussain.
Forensics expert Sergeant Wayne Rasmussen said a bloody handprint, located on the outside of a kitchen cupboard, where the murder weapon was later found, could have been placed there by Dr Hussain or by someone heavily stained with his blood.