Excerpt:
The Muslim convert father of the 12-year-old girl at the centre of a child sex case following her "marriage" to a 26-year-old foreigner confessed his unhappiness at their union, but said "it was not my decision".
But the fifth-generation Australian man, who allowed the pair to be married by an imam in his Hunter Valley home on January 12, now says he fears she is going to "die" from a broken heart.
He also addressed public outrage on the case following the 26-year-old Lebanese man's arrest on Thursday, saying he might "cop a little bit of abuse off people but I will have to cope with that".