A devout Christian mother caused the death of her three-year-old son by making him join her in a religious fast at a time when she was fearful of Covid and worried about her immigration status, a jury has heard.
Olabisi Abubakar, 42, an asylum seeker, is accused of the manslaughter of her son Taiwo, who was found dead at their accommodation in Cardiff having suffered malnutrition and dehydration.
The prosecution claims that Abubakar, described in court as a “deeply religious” Pentecostal Christian for whom fasting is a tenet of her faith, “consciously and deliberately neglected” the child by failing to provide him with food and water, forcing him to join her in fasting.
A note found after the boy died suggested that Abubakar believed fasting would help protect the world from the pandemic.
Cardiff crown court was told that when doctors examined Abubakar after her arrest, they found she had paranoid schizophrenia. The jury was told they would have to decide on her state of mind at the time of her alleged offences.
Mark Heywood KC, prosecuting, said police were called to the first-floor flat where mother and son lived in the Cathays area of the Welsh capital in June 2020 after being called by a friend who was concerned for their welfare.
Police forced their way into her flat and found Taiwo dead on a sofa bed with his mother nearby. Heywood said Nigerian-born Abubakar was “lying on a sofa bed – she was noticeably thin, malnourished and dehydrated”.
He said Taiwo was “emaciated and cold to the touch” and said: “It was clear that Taiwo had been dead for some time.”
Heywood added that the windows were closed in the flat and that there was “a pervading smell of decomposition and faeces – it was dirty and soiled nappies were lying around”.
The prosecutor said that when doctors weighed Taiwo’s body, he weighed just 9.8kg. He said a postmortem examination carried out found no evidence that anything other than malnutrition and dehydration caused his death.
Heywood said her religion made it clear that fasting was an act of devotion but that children, too young to understand this, should not fast.
Jurors were told that when she first arrived in Cardiff from London, Abubakar was considered a devoted mother by fellow churchgoers and neighbours. But she became very worried about the pandemic and her immigration status.
During the coronavirus lockdown, a friend would bring her supplies, but in the summer of 2020 she stopped contacting him.
In police interviews, Abubakar denied that Taiwo had taken part in fasts and insisted he was “eating well”, but diary entries found by police seemed to suggest she got him to take part in fasting.
She described the effect on her of the pressures of not having help, fearing Covid for herself and her child and her immigration status as “depressing”.
She claimed Taiwo had last eaten “Weetabix for breakfast and porridge for dinner” on 16 June, but she then passed out before police arrived at her home on 29 June. While passed out, she believed she had gone to heaven and could hear angels singing. She had said that she did not want to die, and the angels brought her back to life.
Jurors were told Abubakar was appearing via video link from hospital. She denies manslaughter and child cruelty.
The trial before Mrs Justice Jefford continues.
