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April      Last updated: April  15,  5:00 p.m.

From Our Correspondent

IN a brutual incident of killing that reveals the practical influence of Islam, a Moroccan, Ibrahim Aderdour, murdered three generations of his wife's British Christian family in North London because she refused to bring up their daughter as a Muslim.

According to a report carried by The Times, London, Ibrahim Aderdour, an illegal immigrant who was earlier sheltered by the Trant family a few years back, stabbed to death his 16-month old daughter, Amina, his estranged wife, Sophie, 32, and her parents at their family home in Islington, North London on October 12, 1995. A British court has given him four life sentences on March 15, 2000.

The Trant family was subjected to a knife attack in which baby Amina was stabbed seven times in the throat chest, and back. Her mother Sophie, a childcare nurse at Guy's Hospital and former Sunday school teacher, and the grandparents, John Trant 71, and Vivien, 57, suffered similar wounds. John Trant was found inches from the front door of his home having tried to summon help.

The report says the Trants were charity workers who helped refugees and operated an ‘open house’. They had also sheltered the Rabat-born Aderdour when their daughter Sophie met and married him in 1989.

The report reveals that dispute over religion had begun even before the wedding. When Sophie took Aderdour to the family's parish church to discuss the ceremony, he reportedly accused the priest of trying to convert him to Christianity. His fiancee finally agreed to marry at a register office. Later, when she refused to bring their daughter up as a Muslim, he became increasingly violent. The fatal attack came after Sophie had fled from her husband and returned to her parents' home in Islington. On previous occasions too he had lurked in the bushes outside the house, brandshing a knief.

After the murders Aderdour walked to the bank, emptied his account and took a cab to Waterloo, where he boarded the Eurostar. He tricked his way into France without an entry visa by claiming that his brother had met with an accident. He was placed on the Interpol's most wanted list and detectives travelled to Morocco to trace him. He slipped back into Britain in July 1997, but a sniffer dog found him and two other illegal immigrants in a ship container at Dartford. Police failed to make the link and deported him to the Netherlands where too when his fingerprints were linked to his true identity, he fled again. Later, Scotland Yard made its Internet murder appeal, which was picked up by Dutch detectives. They saw Aderdour about to board a flight from Amsterdom to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was arrested on Christmas Day in 1998 and extradited to Britain.

After handing down four mandatory life sentences for the horrific crimes. Judge Michael Hyam told Aderdour: "The very fact that you killed your 16 month old daughter says a great deal as to the horrific nature of what you did. These were terrible killings all done in the house of the parents of your wife, who had welcomed you into their family and against whom you had no justification for holding any grudge."