Baby dead: guilty parents to be sentenced today

Warning: this report contains information about child cruelty which readers may find distressing.

THIS IS POPLAR in 2017. A father has been convicted of murder. A mother has been convicted of allowing the death of a child. Both were found guilty of allowing injury to a child – and both will be sentenced today, 29th March, at the Old Bailey.

Rifat Mohammed was only three months old when he was murdered. He lived out his short life in St Leonard’s Road, Poplar – a life during which he sustained multiple injuries. A post mortem showed that the baby had 38 separate fractures to his ribs. He had bruises on his head, shoulder and back. He had burns on his leg. He had other injuries to his limbs, eyes and neck – and there was evidence that he had suffered a head injury which had starved his brain of oxygen. The pathologist described the injuries as similar to those usually seen after a car crash or a fall from a great height.

It was 8.30am on 4th July 2016 when Rifat’s mother, Rebeka Nazmin, aged 32, rang 999. She said that her baby had vomited the previous day and had been unwell since and now he was not breathing or responsive. When paramedics arrived, they found the baby on the floor in a bedroom, and they saw burns and bruises on his body. They gave him first aid and rushed him to hospital.

The paramedics told the police about the baby’s condition and the police arrested both parents immediately – Rebeka Nazmin at the hospital, where she had gone with her desperately ill baby. Both parents were charged with committing GBH and three counts of committing child cruelty.

Two days later, baby Rifat died. The Metropolitan Police Homicide and Major Crime Command took over the case and the parents were charged with murdering their child and allowing the death of a child. Both parents mounted feeble defences. Rifat’s father, 37 year old Mohammed Miah, denied hurting his child and tried to explain away the burns on the little baby’s body as burns which may have been caused by a radiator. Rebeka Nazmin could not come up with any plausible explanation for her baby’s severe injuries, offering only that Miah was rough with baby Rifat as a poor attempt at an explanation.

Detective Inspector Ken Hughes of the Homicide and Major Crime Command expressed the feelings of most Londoners, saying: “We may never know why a mother and father inflicted such terrible injuries on their own small baby. Even if we had that knowledge, I am not sure we could ever understand. This baby should have been protected and loved; instead he lived with hurt, indifference and brutality. I am glad that these two have been called to account for their actions and now face the consequences of their cruelty.”

However, he acknowledged that parents can sometimes feel stressed by the responsibility of looking after a child. Reaching out, in an attempt to avoid further tragedies, he said, “While nothing can mitigate the consequences of this dreadful crime, I would ask any parents struggling to manage to understand that seeking help is nothing to be ashamed of. Early intervention can help a family cope and organisations and charities, such as the NSPCC, will offer both advice and support.”

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