MUDDAR:KILLER MUM THOUGHT DAUGHTER WAS ‘POSSESSED BY DEVIL’
A mother accused of killing her eight-year-old daughter at the behest of her lesbian lover thought the little girl had been ‘possessed by the devil’, the Old Bailey heard.
Little Ayesha Ali’s lifeless body was found covered in bruises, lying naked, except for a pair of pink knickers, when paramedics were called to the flat in Chadwell Heath, east London.
Her mother Polly Chowdhury, 35, had apparently cut her wrists in the bath when her girlfriend Kiki Muddar, 43, dialled 999 on the morning of 29 August 2013.
Moments after the little girl was pronounced dead, Muddar told the ambulance crew Ayesha had tried to drown herself and that the child self-harmed, a jury heard.
‘She stated Ayesha was a naughty child and Polly thought Ayesha had been possessed by the devil, London Ambulance paramedic Laura Ward told the Old Bailey.
‘She said she refused to make her bed and that she was lazy.’
The girl’s grieving father Afsar Ali wept in court as a statement from his ex-wife’s neighbour was read out.
Ann Dodds said she awoke to a child’s screams in the middle of the night just a few days before Ayesha’s alleged murder.
‘It was loud, piercing screaming, distressed screaming,’ Ann Dodds’ statement said.
She described hearing another softer voice, possibly an adult, before the child said: ‘It touched my skin’.
‘Then I heard a bit more screaming, but not as intense.’
Ms Dodds said at the time she thought the child had a nightmare.
The neighbour told of another incident the following night.
‘I went to bed as normal and was again woken by a child screaming, but not as loud or shrill,’ the statement continued.
‘It was more sorrowful sobbing with a pleading tone and the child was very distressed.’
Ms Dodds added: ‘I could hear a child pleading and sobbing. Then the child spoke loud enough for me to hear a sentence.’
She heard: ‘Amma, I don’t want to be bad. Amma, Amma, I don’t want to be bad.’
Ayesha died of a head injury at her home in Bedwell Court, Broomfield Road, Chadwell Heath, on 29 August 2013.
Muddar called emergency services at around 11.30am that morning, but when paramedics arrived minutes later Ayesha was already dead.
Ms Ward said: ‘She was naked on the floor lying face up. She had a pair of knickers on.
‘I noticed she had bruises over most of her body I could see. There were scuff marks on her knees and vomit near her on the carpet.
‘I also noticed she had wet herself as well.’
Ayesha had sustained over 50 injuries in the hours before her death, including bites, carpet burns and bruises.
Chowdhury, of Bedwell Court, Broomfield Road, Chadwell Heath, and Muddar, of Green Lane, Ilford, both deny murder, manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
ends
