A mother whose obsession with ‘clean eating’ led to the death of her severely malnourished toddler has expressed regret at her lifestyle saying she now realises she was living in a harmful ‘bubble’.
Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah, 43, said she now ‘wished she had done more research about…healthy diets’ but was ‘trying to protect myself from all the bad things in the world’.
She and her husband Tai, 42, were jailed for a total of 44 years in December over the death of three year old Abiyah, whose remains were found buried in the back garden of their former Birmingham home.
The couple, both degree-educated, lived in squalor after turning their back on society, surviving only on fruit, nuts and seeds having established a ‘kingdom’ in which they lived under their own religion and laws.
They were found to have willfully neglected Abiyah by failing to provide him with enough food and to necessary medical attention – prioritising their ‘distorted system of beliefs’ over his welfare.
A review by Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership, published today, suggests health and social care workers and police may have been put off challenging to couple’s religious beliefs over fears of being seen as discriminatory.
The report said Abiyah became ‘invisible and lost from professional view’ following a lack of ‘exploration or curiosity’ by health visitors while the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020 likely contributed to the ‘lack of follow-through activity’.
Abiyah’s birth in 2016 was registered but he was not seen by medics or professionals after 2018 and his death in January 2020 went unnoticed. Officials only discovered the boy had died almost three years later, after police were asked to conduct a welfare check on the couple.
They admitted burying him in the garden after laying with his body for eight days in the hope he would be reincarnated.
When his remains were exhumed, he was found to have had severe malnutrition, rickets, anaemia and stunted growth thanks to his limited diet. His decaying teeth were falling out and he had five fractures that would have caused terrible pain.
The review said the case demonstrated the need for ‘professionals to be confident to ask questions about different cultures and belief systems without fear of being perceived as discriminatory’.
Abiyah was last seen by medical professionals in 2018 after which there was a ‘catastrophic deterioration in his health and welfare between that point and his death in early 2020 due to the appalling neglect by his parents’. Report author Kevin Bell said the last months his life ‘must have been unimaginably sad and painful’.
Both the mother and father were said to be members of Royal Ahayah’s Witness described as an ‘obscure religious movement that has ties to Black Israelites and is based on the belief that mainstream Christianity is designed to subjugate the Black Community.’
The review said their hostility towards those in authority caused the focus of professionals to be ‘diverted or distracted’ from the children’s welfare while the couple’s numerous name changes and aliases made it more difficult for agencies to track and share information effectively.
It noted that Abiyah ‘was only ever seen by a small number of professionals during his lifetime, and for a limited time only’.
According to records, he was seen by a health visitor in April 2016 shortly after his birth, and the following month for a check-up.
There was some contact in 2018 with a local authority social worker in London and four visits to a children’s centre in Birmingham, but the review said: ‘Records of these contacts and interactions are very limited, reinforcing that there was very little insight into (Abiyah’s) existence, health or welfare.’
Abiyah’s parents’ trial heard police visited the Clarence Road property in Handsworth three times, including in February 2018 when Abiyah was alive.
The review stated that with regard to this visit ‘no details were recorded’ about Abiyah, with his presence ‘almost invisible on review of records’.
Elsewhere, the review noted ‘no exploration or curiosity’ from the health visiting service, run by Birmingham Community Health Care NHS Foundation Trust, about Abiyah’s mother’s desire for a home birth with no medical intervention.
In March 2020, health visitor records said it had been noted at a safeguarding meeting that Abiyah had not been seen by them since his six-week assessment, with appointments at the one and two-year marks since his birth not attended.
He had also not received any routine immunisations. While a follow-up inquiry was planned, there was no record of why it never happened, although the review stated that the coronavirus lockdown which began that year likely contributed.
The various authorities coming into contact with the child’s family showed a ‘general lack of knowledge or assessment of the parents’ belief systems’, leading to an ‘insufficient understanding about the impact on his care, the review said.
It added that his parents’ behaviour ‘often distracted or diverted professional attention’ away from his safety and welfare.
The review stated: ‘Parental resistance of advice, support or authority ultimately resulted in (Abiyah) becoming invisible and lost from professional view.’
The report included reflections that while social workers had been aware of the family’s culture and parents’ beliefs and lifestyle, they appeared not to have considered ‘with detailed curiosity’ the impact on Abiyah’s safety and wellbeing, ‘such as if indeed his overall needs were being met’.
Tai, the 42-year-old son of a former Nigerian government official, was jailed for 24-and-a-half years at Coventry Crown Court in December while 43-year-old Naiyahmi received a 19-and-a-half-year sentence after being convicted of causing the death of Abiyah, child cruelty and perverting the course of justice.
Judge Mr Justice Wall said the fact the couple had taken no photographs of the boy in the last four months of his life was ‘a clear sign that you realised by then how sick he was’.
The judge told them: ‘Abiyah died as a result of your wilful neglect of him. He was severely stunted in his growth – at almost four years of age, he was buried in the clothes of an 18-month-old. ‘It is difficult to imagine a worse case of neglect.’
As part of the review, the views of both parents were sought. Tai refused to be interviewed but Yasharahyalah agreed telling the review it was now ‘hard to accept that my approach did not lead to the best outcomes for my child and that it took the court process to take me out of that bubble’.
She said at the time, she did not think Abiyah needed help with any illness.
In a statement, James Thomas and Sue Harrison Co-Chairs of the Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership, said the review had ‘identified important learning’.
They said: ‘Learning includes agencies working together collectively to safeguard children who become ‘out of sight’ and working more effectively with families who find themselves on the fringes of society, helping them to access support and intervening where necessary when children are at risk.
‘Protecting children out of professional sight is a real challenge, given the limits of statutory powers to ensure all children are regularly seen. Our Partnership has made this one of our top strategic priorities to ensure that we do everything we possibly can to identify risk to those children who are out of sight.’
An NSPCC spokesperson said: ‘While the parents of little Abiyah are ultimately responsible for his death, this review brings into sharp focus why it is crucial that professionals demonstrate curiosity and scrutiny.
‘This means asking probing questions, joining up and sharing information and undertaking quality assessments to inform an understanding of the impact of the parents’ behaviour on the child.
‘This is particularly challenging when parents are reluctant and resistant to engage, which in this situation took the focus away from the safety of this little boy until tragically it was far too late.
‘Having the confidence to recognise and know how to enquire about ethnicity, cultural and belief related behaviours, while keeping an open mind, can help child safeguarding practitioners across agencies build better relationships with families and identify the impact and potential risks to children.
‘It is acknowledged that this and the other learning points raised by the review have been taken on board by the organisations involved and changes have been made to better protect children.’