A mother who starved her seven-year-old daughter to death was cleared of murder today after prosecutors accepted her defence of diminished responsibility and guilty plea to manslaughter.
Angela Gordon (35) who admitted the manslaughter of Khyra Ishaq earlier this month, was formally found not guilty of murder by jurors at Birmingham Crown Court, the Press Association reported.
Khyra died in May 2008 after being taken to hospital from the her home in Handsworth, Birmingham, in an emaciated condition. The girl and five other children in the care of Gordon and her partner Junaid Abuhamza (30) had been denied food during months of cruelty, the court was told. Khyra eventually died after succumbing to an infection.
The detective who headed the investigation said the discovery of the dead girl had reduced even the most hardened officers to tears.
Both Gordon and Abuhamza entered guilty pleas to a charge of manslaughter at the start of their trial. Abuhamza's plea was accepted by the prosecution, but Gordon's was rejected and until today had remained on trial for murder.
They both also admitted five charges of child cruelty.
The decision to accept Gordon's plea of not guilty to murder was taken in the sixth week of a retrial after several days of psychiatric assessment and legal argument.
Reuters