The devastated family of a teenager murdered by her “possessive and controlling” boyfriend today told how she had been a role model to her friends.
Seventeen-year-old Cheryl Tariah was battered with a hammer before being strangled by Ako Amin, 19, after she visited him at his hostel for asylum seekers in Barkingside.
Iranian-born Amin then tried to flee the country and was discovered clinging to the bottom of a lorry at Dover three days later. He was jailed this week for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 10 years after admitting murder.
Cheryl lived in Tottenham and was studying art at Chelmsford College in Essex. Her family said the sentence had given them some comfort but the killing had robbed them of a “caring and loving” individual.
Her father’s cousin, Dietriye Tariah, said: “The memory I have of her is an ambitious, pretty woman quite determined to make a good life for herself. A lot of her friends saw her as a role model. She was very conscientious, very caring and loving, fun to be with. In a way we are gladdened by the outcome of the case and that the justice system has taken its course. But we’d rather Cheryl was alive today.”
The Old Bailey heard that Cheryl had been having an on-off relationship with Amin for about a year but often found him to be possessive, jealous and controlling.
He refused to let her talk to boys or go to parties. He also hacked into her Facebook and email accounts and changed the passwords to stop her sending messages.
Amin, whose family were involved in politics in their homeland, fled to the UK in December 2008 after his brother was murdered. He applied for asylum, but was rejected and he had exhausted the appeals process the day before the killing on February 7 this year.
Judge Richards Marks, QC, told him his “wicked act” had deprived Cheryl’s mother, Anita — whose husband died in 2010 from a heart attack — of a loving daughter’s “comfort and support”.
He said Cheryl’s mother had been left to look after a severely autistic son, adding: “No doubt Cheryl would have been a great comfort and support to her in that task. She now no longer has that comfort and support through your selfish and wicked behaviour. I hope you ponder for the rest of your life what you did that day, for it was shocking, appalling and unforgivable.”
The court heard that after covering his victim’s body with a duvet, Amin strolled to a nearby library, where he bragged to a friend: “The hammer didn’t do it — I had to strangle her.”
He will be deported after serving his sentence.
