Watchdog clears police over boy, 4, who starved to death in cot

The death of a four-year-old boy who was starved to death by his mother and left to decompose in his cot was not something police “could have reasonably been expected to predict or prevent”, the police watchdog has found.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has completed its investigation of West Yorkshire Police’s conduct in relation to the death of Hamzah Khan, whose body was found in a cot at his home in Bradford in 2011, almost two years after he died.

Mother-of-eight Amanda Hutton, 43, was jailed for 15 years in 2013 after she was found guilty of Hamzah’s manslaughter and neglecting five of her other children.

At her trial it emerged that a range of agencies, including police officers, had contact with her family but no-one spotted the danger the children were in.

Yesterday, the IPCC said in a statement: “The IPCC investigation concluded that Hamzah’s death was not something West Yorkshire Police could have reasonably been expected to predict or prevent, and that it was the actions of a PCSO who made repeated and concerted attempts to speak to Ms Hutton that led to the discovery of Hamzah’s body.”

The commission said there had been no misconduct by officers.