BeamVibe

MISSING toddler Rahma El-Dennaoui may have accidentally swallowed an ecstasy tablet triggering a heated argument in her house the night before she disappeared, an inquest heard today.

Glebe Coroner's Court this afternoon heard explosive allegations that the 20-month-old's father was a "well-known drug dealer" in the family's Lurnea neighbourhood.

Rahma disappeared from the family home on the morning of November 10, 2005 after she was laid to sleep in the queen bed she shared with two older sisters at about 2am.

Counsel assisting the inquest Peggy Dwyer this afternoon said police had received information from within the community that Rahma's father Hosayn El-Dennaoui was selling drugs.

She said the same source had told police there had been an argument about Rahma accidentally swallowing an ecstasy tablet the night before the toddler went missing.

But Rahma's mother Alyya El-Dennaoui, speaking through an interpreter, denied that her husband was a drug dealer and said there had been no argument in the house that night.

"Let them bring the person who he sells drugs to me, let me see. (Hosayn) is 24 hours with me," she said.

"Do you know anything about Rahma swallowing an ecstasy tablet?," Dr Dwyer asked.

"No," Mrs El-Dennaoui replied.

Mr El-Dennaoui has not been identified as a person of interest at the inquest. He will give evidence this afternoon.

Dr Dwyer said Mrs El-Dennaoui's brother-in-law Mourad Dennaoui had told police there were rumours one of Rahma's childless uncles had kidnapped the toddler.

The court heard several of both parents' brothers lived in Lebanon at the time of the abduction, with one now living in Saudi Arabia.

"Do you think it's possible that someone in your extended family arranged for Rahma to be taken from your house?," Dr Dwyer asked.

"For sure, whoever took Rahma, he planned to take Rahma," Mrs El-Dennaoui said.

The court earlier heard a long-haired "monster" in a child's dream could have been the only sighting of the person who abducted Rahma more than six years ago.

The inquest into her disappearance this morning heard one of the girl's sisters, three-year-old Mena, told police she had seen something the night Rahma was last seen alive.

In an interview seven months later, she said: "I was awake and I saw the thief, but he didn't take me. The thief had long hair."

Mrs El-Dennaoui told the court she didn't know anyone who fitted the description or what her daughter may have meant when she said the man "didn't have hands".

"She was like a child, three years old, I don't know what she meant, maybe it was like a dream," she said.

"I think Hosayn told me that she saw a monster (that night) in her dream."

A gaping hole, large enough for a child to be lifted through, was found cut in the flyscreen above the bed with a sharp knife when Rahma's siblings woke to discover their sister missing.

No sign of the young girl, who would now be eight, has been seen since and police have been unable to identify any clear suspects in the abduction and possible murder.

Mrs El-Dennaoui broke down in tears as she described the first, horrific moment she realised something was wrong that morning.

She said she noticed her 20-month-old daughter was missing when several of her then eight children woke her at about 7.30am.

"More than one (of my children) said she's still asleep," she said.

"I felt my heart tighten ... because usually she didn't stay asleep as that particular time and she didn't come to my bed (that morning)."

"Every time I remember that particular time, all my body is shaking."

Rahma's parents and siblings began a frantic search of the house, checking under beds and in cupboards for the missing girl, but she she was nowhere to be found.

Mrs El-Dennaoui then noticed the torn flyscreen in her daughter's bedroom window for the first time.

"I wasn't calm, I was behaving like crazy, I knew that someone cut the flyscreen. Hosayn was crying, sitting crying," she said.

The inquest continues.

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