Sex crime link to lost child Rahma El-Dennaoui

Rahma El-Dennaoui at 19 months.

A SUSPECTED paedophile who lived within a short distance of Rahma El-Dennaoui had only his frail and elderly mother for an alibi on the night the toddler went missing nearly seven years ago, an inquest heard yesterday. 

 

But the father of six, who can't be named for legal reasons, denied having any involvement in the young girl's disappearance, telling Glebe Coroner's Court he had been asleep at home when the 20-month-old vanished.

The coroner heard police identified 19 "potential suspects" in the November, 2005, disappearance after scanning the child protection register for the area around her family's Lurnea home.

Counsel assisting the coroner Robert Bromwich SC said two of those identified gave "slightly higher" cause for suspicion and these men had been called to the inquest to explore another possible side to the investigation.

The inquest has recently examined the theory Rahma's apparent abduction through a bedroom window was staged and that her family hid information about her death.

One of the suspects, who lived close to the El-Dennaoui family with his mother, had twice been accused of abusing young girls - one the nine-year-old daughter of a neighbour - although the charges had been dismissed in court.

He was also suspected in 2004 of trying to entice children into his car at a local primary school.

Under a lengthy cross-examination from David Evenden, representing Rahma's father Hosayn El-Dennaoui, the man said the previous allegations were false.

He said he "didn't take any notice" of the El-Dennaoui children when he drove past their home and he "watched TV and then went to sleep" on the night of the toddler's disappearance.

The inquest heard the man kept a caravan on a vacant property he owned in a nearby suburb and he had reconnected power to the site a few months before Rahma vanished.

He had previously had no electricity at the property for about five years.

The man suddenly deposited $65,000 into his bank account about a week after Rahma disappeared and has called another suspected paedophile on the morning she was last seen.

But yesterday he said the funds were from the sale of four motorbikes and he had called his associate in the morning because the man owed him money for a truck.

"I'm not sure if I did reconnect (the power on my land)," he said.

"I decided to get the caravan for the kids and to get away from mum ... she won't leave me alone."

The inquest continues today.