Doctor who blinded his wife is jailed

A JEALOUS doctor who blinded his estranged wife by stabbing out her eyes in front of their eight-year-old daughter was jailed for 12 years yesterday.

But the sentence, imposed by a judge at Inner London Crown Court, was attacked as too lenient by his wife, Roohanee Haroon- Qadri, 30, who said: 'He's sentenced me to a life of darkness.' She now wants to divorce her husband, Hassan Qadri.

Judge Leo Charles said Qadri, 40, had carried out an 'unbelievably sadistic attack', during which he also tried to cripple his wife with a claw hammer, at the family home in West Norwood, south London.

Mark Dennis, for the prosecution, said: 'He interchanged the weapons, sometimes using the hammer and then the knife - all in front of their daughter.'

The court was told that Qadri taunted his wife as he plunged the 3in (8cm) kitchen knife into her eyeballs, saying: 'I will spoil your face so much no one will ever want to look at you again.'

He stopped the assault only when the screams of the couple's daughter, Sana, alerted neighbours, who banged on the door and called the police. Mrs Haroon-Qadri's optic nerve was severed and one eyelid cut off.

Mrs Haroon-Qadri had come to England from India as a child and was married to Qadri in an Indian ceremony in 1974 without meeting him. Her husband came to England in 1980 after qualifying as a doctor in India and they were married in an English ceremony when she was 20.

Mr Dennis told the court she had asked her husband for a divorce in 1990, but Qadri told her he would not countenance it because of 'the disgrace to the family'. However, she started a relationship with another man and separated from her husband last September.

The attack occurred on 2 August when Qadri was staying at his estranged wife's home. He attacked her after she returned home from taking her daughter on a birthday outing to Wales.