Raneem Oudeh, 22, was killed along with her mother, Khaola Saleem, 49, in Solihull in August 2018 by Janbaz Tarin, who had subjected Oudeh to a campaign of abuse and stalking before the attack. The inquest heard that Taryn once carved Oude’s name into his arm with a razor and spent days sleeping in his car outside her home. At the inquest to determine the role of the authorities in the murders, Oudeh’s aunt Nour Norris said her niece had called the police at least seven times to report Tarin’s violent behavior but felt she was “not really heard properly and I didn’t take her seriously.” “They’ll tell her, ‘You’re wasting our time, you have to deal with him yourself, kick him out – you can’t keep calling us. Ask him to leave,’ he told Birmingham Coroner’s Court on Monday. “I didn’t think they really understood what he was saying. She could speak good English, she could explain herself very well, but she was told it was a personal matter and she would have to deal with it herself.” Police were called to the property the couple shared with Oudeh’s son from a previous relationship following reports of violence and social services became involved. Norris said Oude was afraid to tell police the full extent of Taryn’s violent behavior because of fears her child would be taken into care. “She was worried about her baby. After the police came around, the social workers would come in,” he said. “She felt she was being attacked, told she was putting her child in danger and that she had to keep him [Tarin] outside the house. She wanted to work with social workers, but she was afraid that if she told them everything, they would take the baby away from her.” Oudeh came to the UK in 2014 from Syria to escape the war and join her mother. After befriending Oudeh at Solihull College, Tarin began “stalking and harassing her” and she married another man in 2015, partly because of fears for her safety as a result of Tarin’s harassment. The marriage broke down and Oudeh raised their son alone. By the summer of 2016, she was “down, upset — a single mom in her 20s” and still being “stalked” by Taryn, Norris said. Tarin harassed and intimidated Oudeh in a relationship, and the couple had an Islamic wedding ceremony in April 2017, Norris said. Oudeh told her family that hours after the wedding, Tarin told her: “We don’t have divorce in our culture. The day you break free from me is the day I will kill you.” She tried to leave him many times. A recording of a 999 call from Oudeh in April 2018 was played in court, in which she said: “I’m a single parent and he always makes me stay with him. He says: “I will kill you if you leave me.” “He tried to hurt me many times, like stabbing me with things. He’s standing outside my door, he’s got my bank card. I just want someone to come and tell him to move out of my house and never come back. He won’t leave me alone.” On August 27, 2018, Oudeh and her mother had gone to a hookah bar, where Tarin hit them and slapped Saleem. Police were called but their response was delayed due to a firearms incident in the city, according to the investigation. The pair then returned to Saleem’s address in Solihull where Tarin stabbed them both to death. He was convicted of the double murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 32 years after a trial in 2018. In a tribute from the family at the start of the inquest, Oudeh was described as “a flower that never stopped blooming. She was passionate, ambitious and her confidence always stood out.” Family members said Salim was “the definition of peace” and “full of love, care and sweetness.”
