Even Charlotte Dootson's own father described his daughter as a 'walking time bomb'. Suffering from mental health problems since she was a teenager, Mark Dootson said 'all hell lets loose' if his daughter failed to take her medication.
Coupled with her drink and drug abuse, in particular Spice, she became a manipulative and controlling monster who made Mohammed Mukhtar's life a living hell. Despite being almost three decades her senior, Mr Mukhtar was terrified of Dootson.
She was well known to the police but never faced justice for the several physical attacks she subjected him to. In fear of her, Mr Mukhtar would lie to cover for her, refuse to co-operate with police or Dootson would manipulate him into believing she was the one who needed his support.
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Tragically, Dootson would eventually go on to kill Mr Mukhtar, who at five foot three and a little over nine stone, was a 'vulnerable' man. The catalogue of injuries a pathologist discovered after his death are testament to the campaign of abuse Dootson subjected him to.
It is understood a multi-agency review will be conducted, after a judge expressed concerns about the 'deeply disturbing' case. It is expected to examine whether more could have been done to save Mr Mukhtar, known to his family as Amin, from Dootson.
"I hope a review will consider whether he has received appropriate safeguards and protection from those responsible for it," Judge Patrick Field QC said after locking up Dootson for a minimum term of 22-and-a-half years. The review will come too late for Mr Mukhtar's family, who remain 'tormented' at how their 'gentle' loved one was brutally killed.
When Dootson murdered Mr Mukhtar, she was under investigation after allegedly strangling him with a cable extension in a separate incident, eerily reminiscent to how he was to eventually die at her hands. "There is nothing that Amin could have done to have deserved you doing this to him, and treating him like you did," Mr Mukhtar's sister Fozia said, addressing Dootson in a statement read at Manchester Crown Court.
Sadly it was not the first time that Mr Mukhtar had suffered at Dootson's hands. After the pair started their on-off relationship in 2017, she became increasingly abusive. Mr Mukhtar was 'quiet' and 'shy' man who had a stutter and was bullied at school. He avoided confrontation and 'suffered in silence' if he was mistreated. He had mental health issues and a problem with Spice.
Dootson had problems of her own, suffering from mental health issues, drink and drug problems and a troubled childhood.
In 2018 the couple lived at Mr Mukhtar's mother's home for a time. His family saw first hand how she became 'aggressive and abusive'. When they went back to live at Mr Mukhtar's flat, his family visited and found Dootson there with another man. She refused to let them in, telling them it was her flat.
A social worker who helped Mr Mukhtar also saw how Dootson could manipulate him. On one occasion in September 2019 he called the police after witnessing Dootson shouting at him and attacking him. But when officers arrived, Dootson was crying and Mr Mukhtar was comforting her.
The social worker said the incident was a 'very good example of the dynamic that frequently occurred between Charlotte and Mohammed'. He said: "Charlotte would be a perpetrator of verbal abuse and physical aggression and then she would switch to being the distressed person and Mohammed providing her with comfort.
"The incident highlighted to me the power and control Charlotte exerted over Mohammed." A few months earlier, the social worker went to visit the couple and found Mr Mukhtar had a black eye. While he was there Dootson began to cry, and Mr Mukhtar moved to comfort her.
Shortly after, she started abusing him and said he was 'mentally and physically weak'. On other occasions, she became abusive after he challenged her about bringing men back to his flat.
Between May 2018 and July last year, the police received 12 calls in relation to violence against Mr Mukhtar. She was arrested three times and was remanded in custody for a month in relation to one allegation.
The violence only intensified and became more serious in late 2020 and throughout last year. On 'numerous' instances Dootson used weapons including knives to attack him.
Mr Mukhtar previously said she'd strangled him with cables and wires. In December 2020 Dootson allegedly stabbed Mr Mukhtar to the lower abdomen after they had a 'heated argument' about Spice.
He spoke with police, telling them that she previously 'hit him every day and with a vacuum metal pipe on the head', but declined to support a prosecution. In February last year police were told that Dootson had threatened to kill Mr Mukhtar, but again he declined to support a case.
A few days later, Mr Mukhtar told how she was 'frequently abusive and violent', how she 'humiliates him' in public and 'makes him fund her drug habit'. The following month Mr Mukhtar told a housing officer that Dootson had smashed a glass over his head and stamped over his head.
He went to hospital and told doctors that his back was painful after he'd been kicked to body and stamped on back, but declined to say who was responsible. After a subsequent visit to Manchester Eye Hospital, medical staff alerted police after Mr Mukhtar said Dootson had attacked him with scissors and a can opener, and that she had choked him with an extension lead so hard that his hearing was temporarily affected.
She was locked up on remand in April after Mr Mukhtar said he was afraid of her, and that she assaulted him three to four times a week. Dootson was released after a month but remained under investigation as she went on to murder Mr Mukhtar.
About a month before he was killed, Mr Mukhtar attended hospital with a stab wound to his arm, a black eye, ligature marks around his neck and bruises to his head. Again the police were alerted but Mr Mukhtar said the injures were sustained after he fell over while under the influence of Spice.
It was on August 30 last year when Dootson eventually killed Mr Mukhtar, strangling him to death while his hands and feet were tied up. Prosecutors claimed she was 'revelling in or amused' by Mr Mukhtar’s turmoil. Dootson appeared to smirk during the court hearing as she appeared on video link, and also appeared to hold her thumbs up as the statement from Mr Mukhtar’s family was read.
They can't remove the image of his horrific last moments from their mind. He was tied up for two hours before Dootson strangled him. "Personally I wonder when Amin realised he was in mortal danger, I wonder what his murderer said to him?," his sister Fozia said in a statement. "When she strangled him, how long was he conscious for, knowing he would die? It is torture for us to think about it."
His post-mortem revealed a catalogue of injuries, consistent with a campaign of domestic abuse. "Just like I told Mohammed, I'll murder him, and look where he is now," Dootson told a police officer after the killing.
The increasing and terrifying levels of violence reveal how 'walking time bomb' Dootson ended up a convicted murderer. The authorities are now expected to consider whether they more could have been done to stop her.
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