Mustapha Charkaui died in hospital on March 23 – 12 days after two men broke into his home and attacked him and his wife with a spade taken from the back garden of his house in Dunsham Lane, Aylesbury.

The violence of the attack, dramatised in a reconstruction for the BBC television programme Crimewatch, shocked the Aylesbury community and has left the Charkaui family devastated.

Mr Charkaui's wife, Krystina is too scared to return to the house in Dunsham Lane and his son Tarik and his wife Hayat have said they still have trouble sleeping at night.

Speaking to The Bucks Herald for the first time since the attack, Tarik Charkaui said: "It has been very difficult coming to terms with my father's death. For the first month-and-a-half after he died it was like I was dreaming. It was like he was on holiday and I kept expecting him to come round and knock on the door.

"But I now realise I can't just speak to him on the phone or have a little chat to him at work. As I am his only son and he was more like a brother to me than a father. We spent a lot of time together
"Now I can't sleep at all. I am off work because I can't concentrate on what I am doing. The killers are out there and my dad's not here but nothing can bring back what has happened to him.

"We now want the police to catch my father's killers for the whole of Aylesbury. If they do not catch them now they will do it to someone else.

"I just want to stop them from doing to other people what they have done to our family."

Tarik said that if someone was arrested and charged with his father's murder it would at least give the family a reason why Mustapha, known to his friends and family as Chris, was murdered.

He said: "We need to know why they did it but even if they are arrested and go to prison it will not make me happy as nothing can ever bring my father back.

"I just can't understand why someone would shelter someone if they know something about it. I urge anyone who knows something even if they think it is not important to come forward and help the police with their investigation."

On the night of the attack, Tarik was at home with his family and four children and was woken up to the ominous sound of two police officers knocking on the door at 1.15am.

Tarik and his wife then maintained a vigil by his father's bedside in the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Tarik said: "Throughout the nine days he was in hospital, I kept hoping he would wake up and come through. One gentleman in a bed to the right of him woke up and that gave us hope."

But Tarik was faced with the heart-breaking decision to turn off his father's life-support machine after doctors said there was no hope of a recovery.

Krystina, Tarik and Hayat now feel that their view of Aylesbury has been changed forever.

Hayat Charkaui said: "I never thought this sort of thing would happen in Aylesbury, we thought it was safe in Aylesbury.

"It has made us more worried about the whole of Aylesbury especially as someone knows something and is hiding it."

However, the Charkaui family have also been very touched by the amount of cards, flowers and gestures of goodwill from residents of the town.
Hayat said: "I would like to say thank you to the people of Aylesbury for all their support and in particular all the staff from Sadaxo and all the staff throughout the rest of Stoke Mandeville Hospital."

Tarik also revealed that an anonymous donor had sent in a cheque to the Crimewatch programme to be passed on to his mother after seeing the dramatisation of the attack on the BBC television show.

Tarik and Hayat are now finding it hard to plan for the future with reminders of Mr Charkaui coming up in the summer.

Tarik said: "Every year we drive to Morocco as a family and he had already booked his ticket for August but we won't be able to go this year as it will be too hard for us. Every place we stop at or visit would remind us of him."

There is a £10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the murderers of Mustapha Charkaui.

Anyone with any information about the attack on Mr and Mrs Charkaui in their home in Dunsham Lane on March 12 should contact the Aylesbury incident room via 0845 8 505505 or, if you don't want to leave your name, the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555111.

All the previous stories on the murder can be read by visiting www.bucksherald.co.uk/elmhurstmurder