{"id":1989,"date":"2023-04-28T10:49:31","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T09:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wepbi.com\/en\/?p=1989"},"modified":"2023-04-28T10:49:35","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T09:49:35","slug":"nigerian-woman-in-uk-on-trial-for-starving-son-to-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wepbi.com\/en\/nigerian-woman-in-uk-on-trial-for-starving-son-to-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian Woman in UK on Trial for Starving Son to Death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A Nigerian woman, Olabisi Abubakar, 42, from Cardiff, is facing trial in the United Kingdom for two counts of manslaughter and child cruelty relating to the death of her three-year-old son, Taiwo Abubakar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olabisi, accused of killing her three-year-old son through religious fasting, told police she had \u201clocked herself away\u201d during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Mail Online<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is being tried before the Cardiff Crown Court where it was revealed that police forced entry to her flat in the Cathays area on June 29, 2020 after a friend raised concerns for her welfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olabisi, who was thin, malnourished and dehydrated, was found lying on a sofa bed next to the body of her son, Taiwo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cardiff Crown Court heard Taiwo weighed 9.8 kilos (22 pounds), with pathologist Dr Stephen Leadbetter finding his death was caused by malnutrition and dehydration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court heard Olabisi was sectioned on June 30, 2020 and has remained detained in hospital, where she is being treated for paranoid schizophrenia, Mail Online<\/em> says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prosecutor, Peter Donnison, told the court that Olabisi was deemed fit for police interview in October 2020 and was interviewed by officers on eight occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one interview, according to Donnison, Olabisi described \u201cthe effect on her of the pressures of not having help, fearing coronavirus for herself and her child, and her immigration status.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Donnison said: \u201cShe described them as depressing. She said she was a religious woman and prayed to God and believed he had heard her and answered prayers and kept them safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe had been taking her child out daily but she had to stop doing that due to the coronavirus. She described herself as locking herself away due to the coronavirus and her neighbour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olabisi had been having issues with a neighbour at the property she was living at in Cwmdare Street, Cardiff, and was an asylum seeker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court was told that she is a devout Pentecostal Christian and fasts as part of her faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors allege that Olabisi caused her young son to fast of both food and water along with her, due to fears over the coronavirus pandemic and personal pressures, according to Mail Online<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in police interviews Olabisi repeatedly denied this and said children should not fast until the age of 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Donnison said: \u201cShe said she would dry fast when she wanted to speak to God and hear something from God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe said her child did not fast, he did eat, and she gave him food to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She told police she had fallen asleep on June 26 and believed she had gone to heaven before being brought back to life when her neighbour and police officers arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donnison said: \u201cOlabisi Abubakar said she couldn\u2019t explain what happened to her. She was asleep on the bed and that is what she remembered last. She said she believed she was being punished by God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a police interview, Olabisi said: \u201cI saw myself among the dead in heaven. I was saying, \u2018I don\u2019t want to die\u2019. Then I saw the angels of God and they brought me back to life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court heard a series of facts agreed by the prosecution and defence in the trial, read by Mr Donnison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This included evidence that health visitors saw Olabisi and Taiwo before the pandemic and had no concerns, including in relation to her religion and religious practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were not seen by healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2020, a police officer was called to a noise complaint by Olabisi\u2019s neighbour and attended her room, which he described as \u201cclean and warm\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taiwo was seen playing loudly and appeared \u201cvery energetic\u201d and healthy, Mr Donnison said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police searched the property after Taiwo\u2019s body was discovered on June 29 and found a note on food in a fridge, stating: \u201cDo not touch anything, whooping cough, virus, save yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olabisi wrote a series of notes while in an ambulance and in hospital, stating she was \u201cvery hungry\u201d and \u201ccan\u2019t stand up\u201d as well that Taiwo was dead, Mail Online<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olabisi told a police officer in hospital: \u201cI don\u2019t eat, I can\u2019t cook, because of coronavirus I can\u2019t go and buy food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors found Olabisi was suffering delusions and she was sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983 on June 30 2020, with detention in hospital still ongoing for her to receive treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jury has been told it is not disputed that Olabisi, who was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and moved to London in 2011, neglected her son but the issue is her state of mind at the time, according to Mail Online<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Olabisi\u2019s trial continues, the court will have to decide whether Olabisi may have been insane, which would make her not guilty of charges against her by reason of insanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caroline Rees KC is expected to open the defence case for Olabisi, who denies manslaughter and two counts of child cruelty, on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Nigerian woman, Olabisi Abubakar, 42, from Cardiff, is facing trial in the United Kingdom for two counts of manslaughter and child cruelty relating to the death of her three-year-old son, Taiwo Abubakar. Olabisi, accused of killing her three-year-old son through religious fasting, told police she had \u201clocked herself away\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[34,31,37,81,30,49,39,23],"class_list":["post-1989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-abuse","tag-actionaidnigeria","tag-childabuse","tag-childcare","tag-globalafairscanada","tag-nigerianpeople","tag-parenting","tag-women"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wepbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wepbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wepbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wepbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wepbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wepbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1991,"href":"https:\/\/wepbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989\/revisions\/1991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wepbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wepbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wepbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wepbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}