A fitness-obsessed father has been jailed for 30 months after being convicted of assault and cruelty to his three children. Rachid Khadla from Windsor in the UK was found guilty by a jury earlier this month for his treatment of his kids, all of whom are now adults. Judge Kirsty Real described the 56-year-old as “a bully” during sentencing after many examples of his abuse were outlined in court, BBC News reports.
- He made his daughter sign a “never get fat” contract. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) described Khadla as fitness-obsessed to the point that he forced his feelings about it onto his children. He went so far as to make one daughter sign a contract promising that she would “do lots of exercise” and “never get fat, even until I die.”
- His abuse was even more extensive. The same child had a chair thrown at her by Khadla when she was only 9 years old, leading to a keloid on her ear that required multiple “operations and treatments” over the years. “She describes being made to feel worthless by her father. There was anxiety and eating disorders,” Prosecutor Alex Krikler told the court.
- All three children experienced similar treatment. Khadla’s abuse only came to the attention of police in 2019 when his teenage son approached police claiming that his father had strangled and punched him. That same son said he was left with “long-term mental health” issues as a result of the abuse, which included being assaulted with a wooden spoon on their hands and even having their friendship group and hobbies controlled by Khadla.
- Khadla was ultimately jailed for 30 months. He pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily arm and three counts of cruelty to a child. However, the jury found him guilty and Judge Real condemned him for “effectively [ruining] their childhoods” through “multiple incidents of cruelty over many years.” He was sentenced to 30 months behind bars.
