Aziz Roohi physically and emotionally abused his daughter

A cruel father locked up for making his daughter’s life a misery - slapping her and ripping up her books - has failed in his bid to convince top judges he was wrongly convicted.

Aziz Roohi, 53, was jailed for three years at Wood Green Crown Court in January 2011 on three counts of cruelty to a minor while the family lived in Hornsey.

His victim Elmira, now 18, prompted Roohi’s original prosecution after taking an overdose when she was 15, the Court of Appeal heard.

She told hospital medics her overdose was due to “long-term physical and emotional abuse from her father”.

Roohi was convicted of three incidents of cruelty, said Lord Justice Hooper. In the first, he slapped his daughter in the face when she was only two years old.

Elmira’s mother recounted how she came downstairs to see her infant daughter with “four fingerprints on her cheeks”.

When challenged, Roohi told his wife: “She’s my daughter, I can do what I like.”

In the later incidents, Roohi, who now lives in Banbury, Oxfordshire, was accused of ranting, swearing and spitting at his daughter, and ripping up her books and posters.

At the hearing last Thursday, Roohi’s lawyers argued that the jury in the original trial should have been allowed to see evidence from Haringey Social Services which they said could have exonerated him.

But Lord Justice Hooper, sitting with Mr Justice Maddison and Mr Justice Lindblom, said the material would have done nothing to advance his case, concluding there was “no merit” in the appeal.