Millionaire faces jail for attack on knife raider at his home



A millionaire businessman is facing jail for attacking a career criminal who had held his family hostage at knifepoint.

Munir Hussain, 52, was told he would be killed when three raiders invaded his home.

He and his wife, their teenage daughter and two sons were ordered to lie on the floor of the living room with their hands behind their backs.

Munir Hussain (front right) and his brother Tokeer (left) were convicted but the jury failed to reach verdict on their nephew Wahleed (behind)

But the Hussains' teenage son managed to escape through a window and when the men realised that, two of them fled.

Hussain then threw a coffee table at the third man, 56-year-old Walid Salem, hitting him in the face. His older son Awais, 20, joined the fight and although Salem tried to escape he was bundled into a nearby garden.

Neighbours in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, then saw several men beating him with weapons including a cricket bat and a metal pole. He was left with injuries including a fractured skull and bruising on the brain.

Hussain denied attacking Salem, claiming it was a group of local youths. But a jury at Reading Crown Court found him guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent.

His brother Tokeer, 35, was convicted on the same charge but the jury failed to reach a verdict on their nephew Wahleed Hussain, 20.

Judge John Reddihough freed the brothers on bail until October 9, but warned them that this did not mean they would not be jailed. The maximum sentence for GBH with intent is life.

A family member said last night: 'This is one more shocking blow for a man who thought he had suffered enough last September. We are absolutely devastated, it's hard to believe in justice any more.'

In a further twist, legal sources said Mr Salem would be eligible for criminal injury compensation - with a fractured skull worth around £6,000 - even though he recovered to commit further crimes.

The court heard that Salem, from Borehamwood, had a long criminal record, with over 50 convictions.

In contrast, Munir Hussain, an engineer by training, had an impeccable character. He came to Britain in 1964 and founded a company which employs nine people and had a £2.4million turnover last year.

In 2004 he won the Business Link small business of the year award. He is a former chairman of the Wycombe Race Equality Council and chairman of the Asian Business Council, which he helped found.



Targeted: The Hussain's detached home in High Wycombe

Defence barrister Michael Wolkind, QC, said: 'The robber ruined his life, traumatised his wife, threatened his children with a knife. Who is the real victim?'

He said if Hussain was convicted 'Walid Salem wins again'.

Mr Wolkind added: 'We are really sorry that the thief, cheat, robber, possessor of stolen credit cards, carrier of a knife, the person who threatened to kill Munir and his family, the disgusting career criminal who invaded the home of a good family, got hurt. We mean that most sincerely.' Prosecutor John

Price, QC, admitted: 'Walid Salem is not someone for whom anyone would feel any instinctive sympathy and on this night he was engaged with others, which makes it worse, in a grave crime, intent, it seems, on causing harm to the occupants in that house. A family, with children.

'There is therefore a sense - and there is no point in hiding from it - of responding, as one might over a drink in a public house, "well he got his just desserts didn't he?".'

Mr Price said that when the Hussains fought with Salem inside the house: 'They were acting entirely lawfully in defence of themselves and their families.



'If they had stopped there, they would not be where they are now. But they did not.'

He said witnesses had told of seeing three or four Asian men encircling Salem in a garden, ' kicking and stamping on him as he lay there' for several minutes.

The court had heard that Hussain, his wife Shaheen, 49, sons Awais, 20, and Samad, 15, and daughter Arooj, 18, were ambushed by a knifeman wearing a balaclava at 11pm on September 3 last year after returning to their detached home from prayers at a local mosque.

In a police interview, Hussain compared his case to that of Tony Martin, jailed for life in 2000 after he shot dead a teenage burglar at his isolated farmhouse in Norfolk.

After a national outcry, his murder conviction was reduced on appeal to manslaughter and his sentence to five years.



If you use force which is 'not excessive' against burglars then the law is on your side



The Government has promised that people who fight back against burglars will find the law is on their side, so long as they do not use excessive or disproportionate violence.



Last year's Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill contained clauses to protect them from prosecution if they act instinctively and out of fear for their safety.



Justice Secretary Jack Straw said: 'Law-abiding citizens should not be put off tackling criminals by fear of excessive investigation.



'For a passer-by witnessing a street crime or a householder faced with a burglar, we are reassuring them that if they use force which is not excessive or disproportionate, the law really is behind them.'

