Girl's murderer sentenced to life after father expresses grief in court

On the day his daughter was born, the father trembled while holding her little ear to his left chest.

A nurse told her not to be afraid: “Her father's heartbeat told her not to be afraid – and this dad would protect her so she wouldn't cry,” the father recalled.

He recalled Friday the memory of Ibrahim Ali, the man who killed his daughter when she was only 13 years old, before a judge sentenced him to life in prison.

The father said that he was now a man transformed by grief, torn by regret, haunted by a promise he felt he had not kept.

“I want to tell my daughter that daddy is shy, cowardly, helpless,” said the father, whose name is protected by a publication ban designed to conceal his daughter’s identity.

“Dad couldn’t protect you at all.”

'I didn't kill that girl,' says Ali

The man recounted his harrowing ordeal in front of a packed BC Supreme Court courtroom for Ali's sentencing.

The father's video statement, which lasted nearly an hour, was the last of seven released before Judge Lance Bernard sentenced Ali to a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years for killing the girl in a park in Burnaby, British Columbia, in 2017.

Ali appeared via video link in a red tracksuit from a cell at the North Fraser Remand Center in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. He paced around the sterile room as the father spoke, occasionally digging black-gloved fingers into his ears.

Given the chance to address the court himself, the killer – a Syrian refugee – appeared agitated as he spoke through an interpreter – denying his guilt.

“I didn’t kill the girl, I didn’t go and park,” he said.

“I didn't kill that girl. It's unfair.”

My father had to climb the wall to leave the cemetery

A jury convicted Ali of first-degree murder last December after hearing evidence that he crossed paths with the teenager in Burnaby's Central Park, dragged her into the woods, then sexually assaulted her before strangling him.

The father remembers going to his daughter's grave the night the verdict came down.

“I stood in front [her] falls and told him that the culprit had finally been found guilty. I stood there and protested to him that Dad had not failed in his responsibilities,” he said.

The father said he stayed so late into the night, pouring his heart into the ground where his daughter's body lay, that the cemetery gate was locked when he went to leave.

“I had to climb the wall to leave.”

The father's statement follows a series of victim impact statements from relatives and friends that paint a portrait of an immigrant family and community forever changed by the killing.

The father said the family came to Canada because of China's one-child policy. The girl was born in this country when her mother was 40 years old.

The father said he travels back and forth between Canada and China for work, managing to spend only a few days a year with the daughter he cherishes.

“I thought she would grow up and have plenty of time to love him,” he said.

“The last words mean a lot,” my brother says

The girl's mother was too distraught to prepare a victim impact statement. Her son – the victim's older brother – said his mother's health had deteriorated and she had lost almost all of her sight in one eye. He said doctors blamed it on depression and sadness.

The brother said his last communication with his little sister was a text message. She loved animated comic strips, he said.

“Our last text conversation was on the topic. However, to my eternal regret and shame, I wasn't really keen on having a conversation with her because I was preoccupied with my job at this time,” he said.

“The last words mean a lot, and mine to him were dismissive, indifferent, and everything I shouldn't have been. And I can never go back or make up for it.”

The brother's wife spoke of her difficulty sleeping and the brother spoke of his fears of the “very real monsters” he knows exist.

The father said he also had trouble sleeping. He said flight attendants woke him up on planes, fearing his loud screams would frighten other passengers.

The father concluded his statement by emphasizing that the “mountain” of grief caused by his daughter’s death “will weigh on my family and me until we leave this world.”

“I hope that all parents in the world can protect their children,” he said. “And that they will no longer have to feel the grief of parents who bury their children.”