Seema Banu, an Indian woman who was violently killed in her south Dublin home along with her two children in 2020, told people she feared she would be killed by her husband two years before her death.
Banu, 37, was found dead in her home in Llewellyn Court, Ballinteer, Co Dublin on October 28, 2020, along with her 11-year-old daughter Asfira and her six-year-old son Faizan.
Her husband Sameer Syed was charged with the three murders but took his life in June 2022 just one week before he was due to face trial.
On March 30, an inquest into the deaths of Banu and her two children heard that security staff at a Dunnes Stores supermarket in Sandymount, Dublin witnessed Syed forcibly dragging Banu on Christmas Eve 2018.
Banu later told staff that her husband was "dangerous" and that she feared he would kill her.
Gardaí were made aware of the reports and Banu and her children spent one night in a women's refuge center before returning home.
She also frequently told people that she wanted to return to India because she and her children had been forcibly brought to Ireland by her husband.
The inquest heard that Banu prepared money and passports in mid-2019 in order to flee from her husband with her children. However, she repeatedly changed her mind.
The inquest also heard that Syed threatened that Banu's children would be taken away if she reported him to An Garda Síochána and that she would not see them again until they were 18.
In May 2020, Banu was taken to hospital with choke marks around her neck. Her husband was charged with assault causing harm and was denied bail.
After that incident, Banu repeatedly told gardaí and her friends that she loved her husband very much and that she wanted her family to reunite.
A neighbor told the High Court inquest that Banu did not see herself as a victim of domestic violence.
Speaking at the continuation of the inquest on Friday, Detective Inspector Vivienne Rock, who oversaw the murder inquiry, told the court that Syed had disguised himself as a woman on the night that Banu and his two children were killed.
Rock said CCTV footage showed a man wearing a dress boarding a Dublin Bus in Rathmines shortly after 8 p.m. on October 22, 2020. She said it was later established that this man was Syed taking a bus in the direction of Banu's home in Ballinteer.
Rock told the court that Syed had "capitulated" during interviews and conceded that it was him in the CCTV footage, adding that he was present in the family home on the night of the three murders.
Rock added that Syed changed back into men's clothing prior to arriving at the house.
Syed had been barred from visiting the family home after being charged with assault for the incident in May 2020. However, he admitted to visiting the family home on 29 occasions between August 20, 2020, and the date of the three murders.
The bodies of Banu and her two children were discovered on October 28, 2020, after concerned neighbors alerted gardaí that they had not seen the family in days.
The three victims had been dead for days upon being discovered, and the property had been flooded by a tap that had been left running. All three victims had been strangled.
Rock said Syed admitted to killing his wife during interviews but denied killing his children, blaming "another party."
However, Rock said gardaí were able to prove this was false after finding his fingerprints on a plastic bag found under his daughter's head.
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