Mother of girl who starved to death cleared of murder

A MOTHER who starved her seven-year-old daughter to death was cleared of murder yesterday after prosecutors accepted her defence of diminished responsibility.

Angela Gordon, who admitted the manslaughter of Khyra Ishaq two weeks ago, was formally found not guilty of murder by jurors at Birmingham Crown Court on the orders of trial judge Mr Justice Roderick Evans.

The decision by the Crown to accept Gordon’s plea to the lesser charge came after she admitted five counts of child cruelty and psychiatrists agreed that she was suffering from severe depression when Khyra died in May 2008.

The decision to accept Gordon’s plea of not guilty to murder was taken in the sixth week of a retrial after several days of psychiatric assessment and legal argument.

Gordon, 35, and Khyra’s stepfather, 30-year-old Junaid Abuhamza, who also pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, will now be sentenced next Friday.

Explaining the decision not to pursue the murder charge against Gordon, prosecutor Timothy Raggatt QC said three psychiatrists had agreed that she was suffering from severe depression in the month before Khyra died at her home in Leyton Road, Handsworth, Birmingham.

Raggatt told the opening of the retrial, which followed an aborted trial held last summer, that Khyra died after being starved by her mother and stepfather during months of “calculated’ cruelty.

Abuhamza also pleaded guilty to five counts of cruelty relating to five other children, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.