A British man with an obsession with fitness used it as a tool to abuse his family, according to allegations made by his now-adult children.
Rachid Khadla faces charges of child cruelty and assault over the treatment of his family over a number of years. His three children — Amira, Hicham, and Karim — detailed the mistreatment.
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Of the three kids, Amira had some of the most stunning claims. She shared a 2012 contract her father made her sign vowing to "never get fat." She also shared that her father controlled what she could wear, whom she could see, and whom she was allowed to talk to.
Rachid Khadla allegedly committed many offenses that hurt his wife and three kids, both physically and emotionally. A court has been stunned to learn of the accusations his daughter, Amira, shared of mistreatment. When she was still a child, Amira was forced to sign a lifelong contract, vowing to "never get fat."
"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," the document said, according to the New York Post.
Amira also shared accounts of regular physical abuse, from being hit with a wooden spoon to having chairs thrown at her.
Amira and her siblings were weighed every day as their father ripped apart any weight gain in his growing children. One of Amira's brothers, Hicham, was also strangled at one point. Authorities say Rachid would easily grow frustrated with Hicham due to his learning disabilities.
Rachid's wife didn't intervene in the abuse. She also didn't intervene in police's investigation of her husband. In fact, she supported them, noting that he's always had a "quick temper."
"She describes the control he exerted over the family and how he had a quick temper and would get angry for no reason," prosecutor Alex Krikler shared. "That anger she describes as being directed towards the children."
An October 2019 incident with Hicham was detailed in court. "He punched Hicham to the chest a number of times and then pushed him onto his sister's bed," the prosecutor explained.
"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. 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."
After the incident, Hicham told his mother he'd had enough. He confided in friends and eventually reported his father's abuse.
"The abuse was not just physical," the prosecutor stressed.
"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."
Karim, now 26, also revealed his own experiences with abuse. He recalled being punched in the head so hard he fell over when he was just 15. He severed all ties with his family before these allegations were set forth.
Rachid denied all these accusations. "When asked how he would discipline his children, he said when they were younger, he would smack them on the bottom, but otherwise he said that he had never beaten or physically chastised them," the prosecutor noted.
"He denied threatening his children or physically hurting them, saying that he sometimes shouted, but that was it. He denied controlling his children."
The trial continues, with many more watching to see if and how he's punished for the alleged crimes against these kids.
