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A man who admitted murdering his five-year-old stepdaughter has claimed they were "like two best friends".

Abdul Wahab, 34, was due to be sentenced for murdering Nadia Kalinowska at their home at Fernagh Drive in Newtownabbey in 2019.

The court heard Nadia would not have been always smiling and laughing, she would have been crying in agony.

Nadia suffered a skull fracture and lacerated liver and bowel which caused her death.

Aleksandra Wahab, Nadia's mother and Abdul Wahab's wife, was also due to be sentenced after pleading guilty to allowing the death of a child and allowing a child to suffer serious physical harm.

However sentencing could not go ahead at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday because Abdul Wahab had dispensed with the services of two previous legal teams and did not have legal representation in court.

He asked the judge for four more weeks to find a new lawyer.

The request was denied.

"You pleaded guilty on the 19 January, we've been waiting since then for this hearing to take place," the judge told him.

"You dispensed with your first legal team. You were given a second team, you no longer wanted their services.

"I'm not prepared to put off the sentencing of you and your wife for another four weeks for another legal team perhaps or perhaps not to become involved."

The judge then asked Wahab if he had anything he wanted to say to the court.

Wahab was brought to a microphone at the front of the courtroom. He said he first met Nadia in 2016 and their lives were "full of happiness".

He said she was the best child ever, before breaking down in tears.

"Since I have lost her, I lost a piece of me. I just don't feel the same. I really loved her. she always loved me, she always called me papa.

"I was very happy when she started going to school. I had dreams for her, I wanted to see her like other women working in a professional job."

But minutes earlier, the court heard Nadia would not have been always smiling and laughing, she would have been crying in agony and distress.

As well as suffering a skull fracture and lacerated liver and bowel which caused her death, Nadia had sustained fractures and re-fractures to her ribs, a fractured collarbone, a fractured pelvis and an injury to her bowel.

Also present at Nadia's time of death were 70 surface injuries including bruising and abrasions.

This led the Crown to conclude that Nadia had been subjected to a campaign of physical abuse in the family home which culminated in her death.

Wahab pleaded guilty in January this year to murdering his step-daughter.

He also admitted causing the youngster grievous bodily harm with intent in an attack on a date between 11 and 15 December 2019, as well as carrying out a campaign of assaults against her on dates between 1 July and 14 December 2019.

The judge said sentencing would now take place on 21 June.