Girl 'Deliberately Starved To Death, Court Told

A seven-year-old girl was starved to death and kept a prisoner in her own home by her mother and her partner, a court has today heard.

Khyra Ishaq was taken to hospital but died of an infection after being starved over a period of weeks or possibly even months.

The seven-year-old’s mother Angela Gordon, 34, and her partner Junaid Abuhamza, 30, both of Leyton Road, Handsworth, Birmingham both deny murdering her on 17 May last year.

Timothy Raggatt QC said Khyra had been starved to the point that was almost unique in the experience of British medical staff.

"It's highly likely that you will find some of what you will hear distressing and disturbing," Mr Raggatt told jurors at the start of the six-week trial.

"The actual means or process which resulted in [Khyra's death] was brought about by a series of actions that were in effect the deliberate and calculated starvation of that little girl over a period, certainly of weeks, and very possibly months."

He also said the jury would be shown a photograph of the seven-year-old when she was developing in a normal way and another photograph was taken of her shortly after her death.

Mr Raggatt said: "The purpose of that will not be to shock you. There is a clear and proper purpose to do that and it's this - they show as clearly as we possibly can the reality of what happened here."

The prosecutor told the jury they would see photographs of Khyra and that they may have seen such photographs in the context of famine in Africa.

He went on: "The cruelty and maltreatment of that little girl, you may well come to think, was both ultimately calculated and obviously deliberate."

He said Ms Gordon and Mr Abuhamza had betrayed their duty of care for Khyra and five other children.

Mr Abuhamza has admitted five counts of child cruelty while Ms Gordon denies five counts of child cruelty between December 2007 and May 17, 2008.

(JM/KMcA)