A man living in the Middle East who is seeking the return of his daughter from Ireland was “completely unaware” she had been taken out of the country by her mother, the High Court has heard.The father launched child abduction proceedings seeking his daughter’s return to the Middle East, saying she was removed without his consent or knowledge late last year.The mother of the child, who is Irish, has alleged physical and mental abuse, including coercive control, during their marriage.The father has argued their child’s habitual residence is in the Middle East, though the woman argues it was “more complicated than that” as the child spent much time in various countries, further arguing the child’s habitual residence was in Ireland, where she was born.The father of the child, who denies allegations of abuse, told the court on Friday that on the day his daughter was taken to Ireland, he was told she was being brought to creche.“I was completely unaware that she had been taken out of the country,” he said, speaking remotely.He told the court it would be “good” if the mother returned to the Middle East with the child, but should she not, he would be happy to assume full-time care of the child.“Every child needs both their parents,” he said, adding his child was “taken from her father”.“She was taken from her whole family. It’s not easy, her siblings are here and her cousins,” he said. The man has other children from a previous marriage.“I’ve always wanted a baby girl, and it’s unfortunate that the minute I got one, she got taken away from me,” he said.The man, who has not yet been cross-examined, said his daughter has developed significantly since he last saw her in person, noting that she was walking and had teeth and hair.The child’s mother is yet to give evidence, though a number of her allegations were put to the husband by his barrister, including that he imposed “strict controls” on her appearance.Denying this, he said she was not someone who looked “indecent”, that she never looked “provocative or bad” and always seemed to be “conservative looking”.The man, who is Muslim, also denied a claim that he said he would take up to four wives. He also denied labelling her “old”, “damaged” and a “whore”, and that he likened her to a “used car”.Asked why she would allege he used this language, he said: “Maybe that’s how she felt, maybe she had confidence issues.”The pair married several months after meeting online while both were living in the Middle East, with the husband describing their marriage as an “arrangement” and a “consequence of her getting pregnant”.He claimed the marriage was the woman’s suggestion, which would benefit her for insurance reasons there, though she denies this.“But since we got married, we both thought we would make the best of it and try to make it work,” he said.The woman has alleged he was physically abusive towards her regularly and verbally abusive on a “daily basis” when he determined she had broken one of his “rules”, which he denied.On one occasion, the woman claimed he became angry with what she was wearing and put his hands around her throat, which he also denied, saying it sounded “very dramatic”.He also denied telling her during an argument several weeks after the birth of their daughter that he was “done with her” and would “obtain custody of the baby no matter what”.He claimed his wife was “always dramatic” and would become “very aggressive” during arguments.The hearing is scheduled to resume later this year.