Love Island host Maya Jama's father has made a heartfelt plea to his estranged daughter through MailOnline begging her to get in touch saying: 'No-one knows how long we have left.'

Hussein Jama, 53, has been in and out of prison all his life and last saw his glamorous TV star daughter when she got in touch with him as part of a 2017 Channel Five documentary on absent fathers called When Dads Kill: Murderer in the Family.

But they have not seen each other since and repeated messages on her birthday, for Christmas and just to see how she is doing have gone unanswered leaving him bitterly downhearted – and regretful for his past.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Hussein, who lives in Bristol, said: 'Of course I'm sorry for everything that I did and if I could turn the clock back, I would change everything, who wouldn't but the past is done and there's nothing I can do.

'But what I want to do is try and make up for all that lost time when she was growing up, I know I was in and out of prison all those years, but I still love her, she's my daughter, she's my own flesh and blood and family is important to me.

'I know I wasn't the best father, and it broke my heart that I was banged up away from my children but I'm now straight.

'I just want to put things right between us because no-one knows how long they have. I could get run over by a bus next week.'

A MailOnline investigation has uncovered Hussein's lengthy prison record, with his first term of two years coming when he was just 17, and he was sent to HMP Portland Young Offender Institution.

While there he says he was abused by inmates, and it set him on a downward spiral which saw him in and out of prison for the next 30 years of his life – and the vital years when Maya and her brother Omar were growing up.

Just after being released from Portland, he met Maya's mother Sadie, then 19, in a local pub in Montpelier, Bristol.

Hussein said: 'She was lovely, she was a friend of my brother, and she came up to me and started chatting me up and we hit it off straight away.

'She's half Scottish and half Swedish and we both really liked music and within a year we were living together.'

But violence was never far away and just weeks after they met, Hussein was in court with another man for using a dog as a weapon against three police officers.

Hussein said: 'In the early 1990s I was in and out of prison all the time. It was a very rough era, there was football trouble, and I would get in scraps in pubs.

'I was a Bristol Rovers fans and it would kick off all the time back then and I would get a buzz from it.'

Hussein added: 'Maya was born in 1994 and a couple of years later I was inside again for violence but then when I came out Sadie suggested going to Sweden, so we moved there for a bit and Omar was born in Stockholm.

'We lived there for about 18 months but then I came back, I missed Bristol and came home, Sadie and the children followed a few months later.'

But within weeks of being in Bristol, Hussein was in trouble once again – for glassing a man in a city centre pub leaving him with a 3cm cut and he was given 18 months.

It was this attack Maya mentioned during the TV documentary, and which had left her visibly shocked and almost in tears as she said: 'That's just so mad to me because you can easily kill someone like that.'

Hussein said: 'When I came out after that it was 1999 and Sadie gave me an ultimatum, she told me to get my s*** together and think of the kids or the next time I went down she was off and taking them with her.

'Well, that's what happened and a few months later I was given six years, my longest stretch and when I got out in 2003 Sadie was with another bloke and Maya and her brother were with her. I had blown it.'

A search of the local Bristol edition of the Western Daily Press for August 1999, reveals the horrific assault, the headline reading: 'Two jailed for musician attack. Victim's career ended by vicious assault.'

It describes how Hussein and another man attacked Stephen Palmer, 31, adding how he 'almost died after an extremely furious, prolonged and brutal attack'.

It added the victim was 'beaten unconscious' after leaving a pub and had been 'hit over the head with an estate agent's sign that had a six foot piece of wood attached to it and savagely punched and kicked.

Mr Palmer was left with three broken ribs, a life-threatening ruptured spleen and permanent tinnitus from an ear injury which meant he could no longer perform or go to concerts.

On the documentary Maya says of the incident: 'These are vicious attacks, he seems like he just goes to the pub, will batter you if he has an argument and not mind going to jail.

'But how could he risk going to jail if he had me, mum and my brother at home ? Why was he not at home instead?

'You can punch someone once and kill them and smashing a glass in someone's throat…'

Hussein said: 'Of course I regret what happened, that guy could have died but the red mist just came down and I'd been drinking, and I just lost it and I deserved to go to prison for that and it cost me my family.

'Maya came to see me a few times and she was only six years old and she was seeing her dad in prison it broke my heart.

'The time between visits got longer and when I came out I would see Maya and Omar at weekends but when she was 12, she stopped seeing me altogether.

'I didn't see her again until the documentary when she messaged me and asked to take part. I didn't want to go on camera but I was happy to see her and connect with her again after ten years.'

In the 2017 documentary Maya said: 'I cut off all contact with him years ago but now I need to see him again. What do you say to someone you haven't seen in ten years?'

Just before they met Maya said on the documentary: 'Ten years is a long time not to see your own dad but to be honest I've been doing ok without him. Do I really want to see him and throw my life into turmoil?

'Do I think Maya leave it, everything is fine or actually what if something happens to your dad and you never speak to him.

'That's not going to make your life fine so I just speak to him, but it might end up I meet him and think I don't like you as a person so why bother?'

She added: 'It's a massive headf***. I can't him out of my life because I couldn't build up a relationship with someone constantly in and out of prison.'

The two were filmed meeting by a park bench and embracing as they spoke for the first time in a decade.

Maya said: 'It was really nice to see him, it wasn't scary, it was normal. I still don't understand where all the violence came from but I'm glad we met.'

Hussein said: 'Since then I have stayed out of trouble and I've stayed out of prison but all my messages to her have fallen on deaf ears.

'I've been stonewalled completely. I've asked what can I do to progress the situation and put us back on track but I've heard nothing.

'When we spoke for that documentary, it was the first time we had spoken since she was about 14 and those two hours together were great but now I feel a bit used.

'I've told her, I've made a fresh start and I'm sorry for what happened in the past and that I was in prison for her childhood.

'I want her to know that I am so proud of what she has achieved, she is such a big star now and I'm so happy for her.'

MailOnline reminded Hussein Maya had said on the documentary: 'I can remember making the decision to stop seeing my dad and it felt the right choice.'

He said: 'I can see why she said that, and I don't blame her but the past is the past, I want us both to move on and try and make things worth between us.

'I was speaking to a friend the other day and he said he had reconnected with his daughter after 20 years when she had a baby, so maybe who knows, it will happen when Maya has a family, but it would be great if it could happen before then.

'I remember the day Maya was born as if it was yesterday, it was the happiest day of my life and now at the same time it's the saddest because I haven't been a part of her life for so long because of the path that I took.

'I want her to know I'm keeping my nose clean, I've got a job and I'm staying out of trouble, I'm 53 now, I could be a grandfather some time soon and all that violence is in the past.

'I'm not going to give up, I'm going to hope that one day we can meet again, and I can make up all those years to her, I don't want to force her, but I want her to know I think about her all the time.

'I've made mistakes, but I can't change the past, I am a new man and I want her to know that. I'm happy to do whatever it takes so that we can meet up and be together again but I'm not sure what else I can do.'

Hussein revealed he doesn't watch Love Island but did see Maya when she was on TV on the 2020 show Save Our Summer with Peter Crouch and listened to her all the time when she was a Radio 1 DJ.

He said: 'I see and hear her more on the television and radio then I do in person. I also hear from other about who she is dating and I'm happy to see she still supports Bristol Rovers like her dad.

'When I saw her for the documentary, she was dating Stormzy but we didn't talk about it although I heard bits from Omar and her aunties.

'I didn't know anything about her and the basketball player until I read it in the paper but all I want is for her to be happy and find someone who will love her and look after her.

'I know she came back to Bristol for Christmas and was with her mum and my sister and my side of the family, but I wasn't invited, I was cut out and that really hurt.

'Like I said earlier, the mistakes I've made I can't change but I want Maya to know that I have changed, and we can make it work.'