Tommy Kane 39, a Montrealer who played for the Seattle Seahawks and the Toronto Argonauts, was charged Monday, Dec.1, 2003 with second-degree murder in the death of Tamara Shaikh, 35.
Former NFL football star Tommy Kane, now in prison for killing his wife, has been ordered to pay $590,000 to his children and their guardian for the pain and suffering he's caused.
The Montreal-born wide receiver is serving 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the November 2003 stabbing death of his wife Tamara Shaikh.
When their mother was brutally killed the four children - a girl and three boys - ranged in age from three to nine years old.
Ava Shaikh, the woman's sister, was granted legal custody of the children and she filed a $1.2-million lawsuit, citing the pain and suffering Kane had caused.
She had been seeking $250,000 for each child, but Quebec Superior Court Justice Clement Gascon ended up awarding half that amount.
Shaikh was also awarded $90,000.
In his decision, Gascon called it a brutal homicide - even if Kane's attorney "made the surprising assertion that (Tamara) Shaikh did not suffer any pain prior to the fatal blow."
"In the situation at hand, the pain and suffering of the deceased before her death is obvious," he wrote.
"She must have realized the imminence of her death as a result of the attack by Mr. Kane. Her death was not instantaneous. Mr. Kane had to reach twice for a different knife."
Gascon said a summary of events established that Shaikh, 35, was conscious for a certain period of time during the savage beating.
Kane did not contest the demand for payment, saying he agreed to pay whatever the court would deem just and equitable.
But his attorney sought to have the sum lowered, pleading that the amounts claimed go well beyond amounts awarded by case law in Quebec.
Gascon noted that the manslaughter committed by Kane left the four children without parents to care for them as a result of their father's imprisonment.
"Their loss was not limited to that of one parent, in the end, it included both," the judge said.
The children have not seen their father since his incarceration and have had no contact with him.
A sum of $171,000 was also transferred to Ava Shaikh from the sale of the former family residence registered under Kane's name.
The tragedy occurred at the suburban home of Kane's mother - where Shaikh, his estranged wife, and Hilda St-Louis, a member of the Adventist Church, had come to bring him to a detox centre to undergo treatment for drug abuse.
Evidence presented at his trial revealed that Kane attacked Shaikh when she refused an invitation to enter a bedroom to discuss the possibility of a reconciliation.
He knocked her to the ground, repeatedly punched her in the face, and banged her head against the floor. He then dragged her by the hair into the kitchen.
Once there, Kane reached for a knife, but it was wrestled away by St-Louis. He then reached for another knife and "the fatal blow was struck."
Two psychiatric reports detailing Kane's bout with depression convinced the Crown to downgrade the original charge of second-degree murder.
Kane played for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks between 1988 and 1992. He finished his football career in the CFL, playing five games for the Toronto Argonauts in 1994.
The verdict by Gascon was rendered in May, and was first reported this week by Montreal radio station CJAD.