Two in court after seven-year-old 'starved to death' in Birmingham home » Housing » 24dash.com

Two people have appeared in court charged with neglect after a seven-year-old girl died, police said today.

The girl, from the Handsworth area of Birmingham, died of starvation, ITV News reported.

It said a neighbour in the Leyton Road area described seeing children at the home grabbing bread which had been thrown out for birds.

West Midlands police refused to confirm that starvation was the cause of death.

In a statement the force said: "We can confirm that a seven-year-old girl was taken to hospital on Saturday 17 May, where she was pronounced dead."

The statement added: "Her cause of death has not been confirmed at this stage.

"Police are conducting inquiries and a man aged 29 and a woman aged 33 have been charged with neglect and appeared before Birmingham Magistrates on May 19.

"They have been remanded to appear again on 28 May.

"As proceedings are active, we cannot comment further at this time."

West Midlands police named the girl as Khyra Ishaq.

The couple who appeared in court were Angela Gordon, 33, and Junaid Abuhamza, 29. They are believed to have been Khyra's mother and stepfather.

A Birmingham City Council spokesman said: "We are deeply saddened by the death of this child and our sympathies go to the child's family and friends at this difficult time.

"This death is now the subject of a police inquiry and Birmingham City Council are fully supporting the investigation.

"We are therefore unable to make any further comment."

The door and ground floor windows of the house at the centre of the inquiry in Leyton Road were covered with metal shutters today.

Residents in the street were visibly shocked when told of the charges which have been brought against their former neighbours.

Sales worker Amarjit Ram told reporters: "I am just shocked to be honest - the mother looked fine to me.

"I would see them in the street and I think they had lived there for a couple of years."

Neighbours spoke of their shock at the news.

One neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: "We would never expect something like this.

"We knew they were going through some trouble about a year ago.

"Before that we used to see the children and they looked happy and normal, but after that we didn't see them.

"They seemed like normal, happy kids, but then they disappeared.

"The house wasn't very well kept. It's not the cleanest of places.

"We only live a few doors down. It's shocking."

He said police had been outside the house for up to four days and described an ambulance arriving in the middle of the night.

ITV News reported police were called to the house in the early hours of Saturday because a young girl had problems with her breathing.

Officers found six children on mattresses on the floor. The seven-year-old girl was critically ill and the five others were emaciated, ITV reported.

The children were taken to Birmingham Children's Hospital but the girl died. The others are still being treated.

Neighbours told ITV that three of the children were seen in recent months looking "extremely thin".

Another neighbour, Mohammed Khalil, said he used to see some of the children in their uniforms on their way to Grove School in Handsworth.

But he said he had not seen them for many months. He said there were around six children in the family.

"The children's father, he didn't live there. He was living there but then he moved out," he said.

"I think there was another man living there. I saw him a couple of times."

A spokesman for the school refused to comment.

One neighbour in Layton Road said she had not seen the girl who died or her five siblings for more than three months between Christmas Eve and early May.

Lilian Costello said she had known the children's mother and up until Christmas Eve had spoken to her practically every day.

Ms Costello said: "I saw her on Christmas Eve and I wished her a Merry Christmas but she said she didn't celebrate it, she celebrated Eid.

"I didn't see her for another four months after that and when I saw her again at the beginning of May, she said she still lived up the road.

"I asked how the children were and she said they were all right."

The neighbour added: "She seemed very devoted to the children and I am very surprised.

"She used to let the children come out to play with the other children and she always stood at the front of the house watching them.

"There were three boys and three girls and they were a nice bunch of kids, very well-mannered. It's just so sad knowing that one of them has died."

Other neighbours claimed Ms Gordon had converted to Islam and that she had split up several years ago with her children's natural father.

Another neighbour also told the media that the woman who lived at the house had appeared to be a good mother.

"I can't say anything against her from what I have seen," the woman said.

Other residents told how they had seen police wearing protective forensic suits removing furniture and carpets from the children's home over the weekend.

Meanwhile, parents collecting children from the nearby Grove Primary School were handed a letter informing them of the child's death.

The letter, signed by the school's headteacher, Pamela Matty, read: "Dear Parents, We have been informed by the police that a child in Handsworth has died."

It concluded: "As a mark of respect for the family and the community, we are postponing tonight's music concert to a future date."

A 26-year-old mother-of-three who lives two doors away from the boarded-up property estimated that she had not seen the children for nine to ten weeks.

Zarila Bi said: "They just appeared to be a normal family. There was no indication that anything was wrong and it's really sad.

"The woman who lived there was saying she was going to change school and move house so we just took it that she had moved."

A spokesman for Birmingham Crown Court said Gordon and Abuhamza would appear at the court for a preliminary hearing on May 28, charged with causing or allowing the death of a child between May 9 and May 17.