Seema Banu Told Staff In Dunnes Stores Her Husband Was Going To Kill Her - Inquest Heard

Thursday, 30 March 2023 15:32

By Caoimhe Harney

In October 2020, Ms Banu and her two children were brutally killed

A woman who was brutally murdered alongside her two children in Dublin in 2020, came to the attention of gardai two years before her death - due to an attack by her husband.

The inquest into the deaths of Seema Banu, her 11 year old daughter Asfira Riza and six year old son Faizan Syed, is under way in Dublin’s Coroner Court.

In October 2020, Ms Banu and her two children were brutally killed in their home in Rathfarnham.

Seema's husband Seemer Syed was charged with their murder but ended his own life in prison, while awaiting trial.

Today, the Coroner Court heard Seema and her children came to the attention of Gardaí on Christmas Eve 2018, when shop workers in Dunnes Sandymount saw her being pulled and grabbed forcibly by her husband.

She had only been in Ireland two weeks and told staff her husband was going to kill her and insisted she wanted to go home to India.

The children were with Seema and her daughter at the time and taken to Dundrum Garda Station.

There, Asfira informed Gardaí she was slapped by her father, when she tried to help her mother.

Ms Banu did not want to make an official statement but agreed to go to a women’s refuge with her children. They stayed one night before returning to their apartment.

The court heard Tusla were informed of the child protection issue but did not issue a response for 9 months. Seema got in touch with Gardaí in Dundrum Garda Station a number of months after the incident to say she was doing okay.

The inquest continues this afternoon.

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