Cold-hearted parents jailed for 44 years after embalming son and burying him in garden

12 December 2024, 15:52 | Updated: 12 December 2024, 16:08

A couple who invented their own religion, embalmed and buried their three-year-old son in their back garden have been jailed for causing his death in a case of 'breathtaking neglect'.

Tai and Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah, aged 42 and 43, have been jailed for 24-and-a-half years and 19-and-a-half years respectively for causing their son's death and perverting the course of justice.

They were also convicted of child cruelty by failing to provide adequate nutrition or summon medical care, and perverting the course of justice by burying their son Abiyah Yasharahyalah in Handsworth.

The couple showed no obvious emotion in the dock as a judge said they had both "played a part in starving" their son, when it would have been obvious he needed medical care.

Post-mortem tests showed Abiyah had suffered six bone fractures, severe malnutrition, rickets, anaemia, stunted growth and severe dental decay.

The couple, who had opted out of society and set up their own "kingdom", believed he would be reincarnated if they followed a burial ritual, a court has heard.

At the sentencing hearing Mr Justice Wall said: "Abiyah died as a result of your wilful neglect of him. He was severely stunted in his growth - at almost four years of age he was buried in the clothes of an 18-month-old.

"I accept that there was no deliberate infliction of physical injury by either of you."

But the judge added: "It is difficult to imagine a worse case of neglect than that which the court has encountered in this case.

Although the couple had enjoyed the benefits of the NHS during the first 30 years of their own lives, the judge said, they had "denied this advantage to Abiyah for misplaced ideological reasons

"I am sure each of you played a part in starving him and failing to get medical care for him when the need for it was obvious to you."

Jurors unanimously convicted Tai and Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah after hearing how they kept their son's body in their bed for eight days after his death.

He died from a respiratory illness which was worsened by a "restricted" vegan diet which caused severe malnourishment, rickets, anaemia and stunted growth.

Instead of contacting the NHS, the couple - who told police they had renounced British citizenship and had an "off-grid" existence - tried to treat their son's final illness with garlic and ginger.

They then "embalmed" and buried the toddler in an 80cm-deep grave in the garden of their then-home in Clarence Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, at the start of the Covid pandemic in early 2020.

Former fitness instructor Tai told police that he had carried out an "eight-day ritual" hoping that Abiyah would "come back", but eventually decided to bury him in accordance with his culture on what he regarded as sacred ground.

He told jurors he had adopted polygamy but did not eat meat as part of his quasi-religious "kingdom".

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Although he had studied immunology and how diseases affect genes before graduating from Queen Mary University of London, Tai claimed he was unaware of the risks of a strict unsupplemented vegan diet.

The couple got married in September 2015 and "invented" a belief system featuring aspects of Igbo culture that Tai, who grew up in both Nigeria and Peckham in south-east London, adapted to form a legal system he called "slick law".

The court heard that they lived off the generosity of others, occupying a shipping container and then a caravan in the Somerset area.

Trial judge Mr Justice Wall praised jurors - who deliberated for a total of 21 hours and 14 minutes over five days - for the obvious care they had taken in reaching their unanimous guilty verdicts.

Commenting after the verdicts, Detective Inspector Joe Davenport, the senior investigating officer, said of Abiyah's father: "I would describe him as a very arrogant man, a fantasist, and someone who looked to manipulate people.

"And I would say that Naiyahmi, as his one and only follower, was incredibly weak-minded to put her love of Tai-Zamarai ahead of the needs of her own child and the need to please him ahead of the welfare of Abiyah."

Opening the case for the Crown at the start of the trial, prosecutor Jonas Hankin KC claimed the couple had jointly neglected Abiyah by failing to provide him with enough food or any medical help.

Prosecutors alleged it would have been obvious to both defendants that Abiyah, whose teeth would have been wobbly, was in considerable pain from abscesses and other ailments.

Mr Hankin said: "This child started life small but normal, and over time he became abnormally small. Those features must have been discernible to his parents if, as they claim, they were caring, loving and attentive."

Referring to a comment made by Abiyah's mother that "nature has a way of doing things", Mr Hankin added: "That is their attitude 'We're right and nature will decide'."

"It is breathtaking arrogance and cruelty," he added.

The trial was told that police visited the property three times - in February 2018 when Abiyah was alive, again in September 2021 after his death, and then in March 2022 to assist in the couple's eviction for non-payment of rent.

On the second occasion, police bodycam footage recorded officers asking if a child lived at the address and Tai becoming aggressive and being arrested for being obstructive.

The welfare check did not lead to Abiyah being identified as missing, due to confusion over records related to the address.

A child safeguarding practice review into his death is ongoing, examining police and other agencies' involvement with him during his life.

Defence lawyer Bernard Tetlow KC told the trial: "Tai and Naiyahmi were not saying to themselves we realise our diet, we realise our healthcare is bad for us, but we are going to do it anyway.

"They genuinely believed they were doing the right thing. They genuinely believed that their diet and the belief in natural and holistic medicines was the best way."