An occasional commentary on some aspects of criminal law in Ireland.
(West Midlands Police/PA)
Khyra Ishaq: held prisoner and starved to death
A mother who starved her seven-year-old daughter to death was cleared of murder today after prosecutors accepted her defence of diminished responsibility.
Angela Gordon, who admitted the manslaughter of Khyra Ishaq two weeks ago, was formally found not guilty of murder by jurors at Birmingham Crown Court on the orders of trial judge Mr Justice Roderick Evans.
The decision by the Crown to accept Gordon’s plea to the lesser charge came in the sixth week of the trial after she admitted five counts of child cruelty and psychiatrists agreed that she was suffering from severe depression when Khyra died in May 2008.
Gordon, 35, and Khyra’s stepfather, 30-year-old Junaid Abuhamza, who also pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, will now be sentenced on Friday next week.
Explaining the decision not to pursue the murder charge against Gordon, Timothy Raggatt QC, for the prosecution, said three psychiatrists had agreed that she was suffering from severe depression in the month before Khyra died at her home in Handsworth, Birmingham.
Mr Raggatt added: "For that reason we cannot resist the defence of diminished responsibility, now raised for the first time. It is extraordinary that it emerges so late (in the trial) but the sole reason for that is the denial... that Angela Gordon has put up around herself for all these months."
Mr Raggatt told the opening of the retrial, which followed an aborted trial held last summer, that Khyra died after being starved by her mother and stepfather during months of "calculated" cruelty.
Khyra eventually succumbed to an infection after being starved "quite deliberately" while being kept prisoner in her own home.
When he opened the case against Gordon and Abuhamza last month, Mr Raggatt warned jurors that aspects of the case would upset and disturb them.
Khyra was so emaciated at the time of her death on May 17, 2008, that her condition was outside the experience of medical professionals.
Abuhamza, who lived with Gordon in the months leading up to the death, also pleaded guilty to five counts of cruelty relating to five other children, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.
The other children, who were also in the defendants’ care, were "similarly starved" and assaulted, the court heard, with two of them found to be in a state of acute, severe and dangerous malnutrition.
IS SEVER DEPRESSION ENOUGH NOW TO ALLOW A SUCCESSFUL PLEA OF DIMINISHED RESPONSIBILITY?
ReplyDeleteCAN A PLEA OF DEPRESSION BE ENOUGH TO GET A MURDER CHARGE REDUCED TO MANSLAUGHTER?
THIS IS A MAJOR DEPARTURE FROM ESTABLISHED LAW
As to whether depression constitutes diminished responsibility, I don't know. I'm not a medical professional.
ReplyDeleteAll I know is that Khyra Ishaq was subjected to a deliberate campaign of abuse and torture and that Gordon and her partner should be punished for that to the full extent of the law.
Whether or not a murder has taken place... I just don't know. Murder needs premeditation and the intent to kill. You can abuse and torture someone without actually intending to kill them. But that's by the by and I don't for a moment mean to sound like I'm defending her or what she's done in any way.
I do wonder how many things like this go unnoticed though. Perhaps not as severe but child abuse is child abuse, no matter how extreme it becomes. We only ever hear of the ones to hit the headlines. There's only so much that social services, the police, children charities etc can do. If it isn't known, nothing can be done. There's something very chilling in that.