Girl starved 'quite deliberately'

A seven-year-old girl died after being starved by her mother and stepfather during months of "calculated" cruelty, a court heard.

Birmingham Crown Court was told that Khyra Ishaq succumbed to an infection in May 2008 after being starved "quite deliberately" while being kept prisoner in her own home.

Opening the case against Angela Gordon and her partner Junaid Abuhamza, who both deny murder, prosecutor Timothy Raggatt, QC, warned jurors that aspects of the case would upset and disturb them.

Mr Raggatt told the jury that Khyra was so emaciated at the time of her death on May 17, 2008, that her condition was outside the experience of medical professionals.

The QC told the court: "She was but seven years old when she died and the circumstances of her death are more than a little shocking.

"The infection that brought about Khyra's death was one that was caused, and wholly caused, as a result of one thing - for months, quite literally months, she had been starved, and starved quite deliberately."

Gordon, 35, formerly of Leyton Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, denies five counts of child cruelty alleged to have been committed between December 2007 and May 2008.

The jury, which was informed that the case is a retrial, has been told that 31-year-old Abuhamza, also of Leyton Road, has pleaded guilty to five counts of cruelty.

Jurors also heard that five other children, who were also in the defendants' care, were "similarly starved" and assaulted.

Two of the other children, none of whom can be identified, were found to be in a state of acute, severe and dangerous malnutrition when the matters came to light, Mr Raggatt alleged.