Boy starved to death was 'invisible to authorities'

COUPLE BURIED TOT, THREE, IN GARDEN

- AINE FOX

A THREE-year-old Birmingham boy who was starved by his parents and buried in a garden became “invisible and lost” from the sight of child services early in his life, a review has concluded.

Abiyah Yasharahyalah died in early 2020 from a respiratory illness, worsened by a “restricted” vegan diet which caused severe malnourishment, rickets, anaemia and stunted growth.

A review into his family’s contact with authorities has found there was a lack of curiosity about how his parents’ culture and lifestyle might have impacted on his wellbeing, warning that “the safeguarding of children being impacted by harmful cultural practice is paramount”.

Abiyah's parents, Tai and Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah, aged 42 and 43, were handed lengthy jail terms in December with a judge saying they had both “played a part in starving” their son when it would have been obvious he needed medical care.

His father, a medical genetics graduate who also used the first name Tai-Zamarai, and former shop worker Naiyahmi shunned mainstream society and left Abiyah’s body buried at their property in Handsworth, Birmingham, when they were evicted in March 2022.

A two-month trial at Coventry Crown Court last year heard the couple had “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 they lived off the generosity of others, occupying at one point a shipping container and at another a caravan in the Somerset area.