Nusayba Umar was killed when she was just 16 months old
(Picture: Metropolitan Police)A violent bully who murdered a 16-month-old girl when she got in the way of his unlicensed dog breeding business has been jailed for life.
Kamran Haider, 39, caused a devastating head injury when he shook Nusayba Umar but kept quiet about the violence and tried to blame her mother Asiyah Amazir when the toddler fell gravely ill.
Ms Amazir called 999 and initially said her daughter had become unwell on a bus but she later confessed to lying to police because she was so scared of Haider.
She had moved in to Haider’s Ilford home after they met through a dating website in part to help with his dog breeding business.
Haider already had a history of abuse and intimidation towards women and children.
He was convicted following an Old Bailey of cruelty towards Nusayba in the lead-up to her murder.
Sentencing the killer to a minimum of 20 years in prison, Mrs Justice Cheema Grubb said: “It is clear to me Kamran Haider wanted Ms Amazir’s assistance with his unlicensed dog breeding business, and her child got in the way.
“He was prone to temper tantrums and resented the attention Nusayba got from her mother.”
Concluding the fatal injury most likely came from a bout of shaking, the judge added: “He lost his temper with her.
“It is likely to the intent to cause serious harm to Nusayba was formed in an instant. But it was not an isolated incident, Kamran Haider knew he couldn’t keep his temper and Nusayba was not safe from him. He did nothing to address that.”
The fatal attack on Nusayba happened on September 13 2019 when the toddler had been crying.
The judge said he may have been “groggy” after a night of arguing with Ms Amazir and had also not been effectively managing his diabetes.
Ms Amazir was not in the room when it happened and did not realise until later in the day that her daughter was injured and in need of medical attention.
She called 999 from a bus stop in Green Lanes just before 6pm, shortly after her daughter had suffered a seizure.
The court heard Haider had been controlling and violent towards Nusayba during her life, putting her in a corner as punishment, hitting her on the hand, and at times making her adopt a stress position.
If Mrs Amazir tried to intervene, he would slap her, jurors were told, and admonished her for being a “soft” mother.
On the day of the murder, Mrs Amazir got up to tend to the dogs when she heard Nusayba crying.
As she went towards her room, she heard Haider say “shut up, Nusayba” and a slapping sound.
Nusayba died in hospital from unrecoverable brain injuries on September 17 in 2019.
In a victim impact statement, Ms Amazir paid tribute to her “princess” daughter and said she had faced being blamed for the death during two years of Family Court proceedings.
“Putting aside the demoralising and extremely intimidating and verbal and physical abuse I suffered at the hands of the defendant, my daughter was taken from me and she was taken in such a cruel, heartless, and inhumane manner,” she said.
“Nusayba truly was my most precious blessing, my baby girl, my only daughter after three boys and the absolute joy of my life.
“She was subjected to the most horrible experiences at the hands of this man towards the end of her life.”
Describing the “life-long impact”, Ms Amazir said: “Since the day she was taken from this world, I’ve not been the same person.
“I am a shell of the confident, bubbly, and trusting young woman I once was. I question my decision making and I struggle to trust people, I am withdrawn, and have become very solitary.
“I struggle to make new friends and have become very fearful of people in general. The return to my former self will be a life-long and intensive battle.”
Nusayba’s father Muhammad Umar told the court: “I struggled before her death with the fact that my child was living with a man who I had never met. When I later found out that my daughter had been punished physically by this man I was horrified.
“This made me angry and gave me an emotion that I never experienced before. I knew that had I been aware what was happening, I would have protected her.”
He said Haider has “destroyed my life”.
He added: “I was robbed of my daughter’s life, I was planning to take full custody of Nusayba before she died. I was looking forward to this, I wanted to watch my daughter grow into a woman and see what she may become. But this was not to be, that man took that away from me.”
Haider did not turn up to his sentencing hearing. He denied but was convicted of murder and child cruelty.
