Couple found guilty over toddler abuse death

A stepmother was today found guilty of subjecting her lover's baby son to a fatal campaign of abuse that left him looking like a car crash victim.

Sumairia Parveen and her lover and cousin, Abid Ikram, were both found guilty at Southwark crown court of "causing or allowing" the death of 17-month-old Tahla Ikram.

Parveen, 24, subjected the infant to weeks of abuse while his father, Ikram, 30, "stood by and did nothing".

The court heard that she hated the infant, who she feared threatened her relationship with Ikram, and hoped that his injuries would lead to him being taken into care.

The child suffered a catalogue of fractures and bruises as his limbs were "twisted and pulled", he was burned with a cigarette and his leg was sliced open progressively until the wound was so deep that tendons and veins were exposed.

Many of his injuries were ignored for days, causing him to scream as his broken bones ground together, the court heard.

The child was repeatedly taken to hospital but his mounting injuries were not recognised as the result of systematic abuse, possibly because he was seen by a different doctor each time.

Hospital staff were also given different accounts as to how the boy had been injured, ranging from falling down stairs to slipping off a chair.

Jeremy Donne QC, prosecuting, said the truth could not have been more horrific.

The child, who months earlier had spent time in temporary care after police found him alone at the family home in west London, finally died in his cot next to his father's double bed on September 6 last year.

Ambulance staff noted that while the child's father appeared distressed, Parveen "stood back ... quite calm".

The boy's injuries included a broken thigh and shin and three fractured ribs. A doctor who examined him said he looked like a car accident victim.

A postmortem examination discovered that marrow fat deposits from the untreated broken thigh had invaded his lungs, starved his brain of oxygen and killed him.

Both Ikram and Parveen, of Cheltenham Place, Ealing, west London, denied abusing the child. She told the court she had loved the boy as if he "was my own", while her lover said he "would never have hurt my son".

Parveen, who gave birth to a baby by Ikram while in custody, was cleared of murder but convicted of "causing or allowing the child's death".

Ikram, who once beat his son with a plastic cricket bat on Parveen's orders, was convicted on the same count and was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice for sending his lover to Pakistan after his son's death.

The pair, who were both remanded in custody, are due to be sentenced on September 7 and each face up to 14 years in jail.