London: Mother and lesbian partner accused of killing child
A mother and her lesbian partner killed her daughter after developing a relationship centred on fictional characters, the Old Bailey has heard.
Polly Chowdhury, 35 and Kiki Muddar, 43, are jointly accused over the death of Ayesha Ali. They deny the charges.
Ayesha was found dead in her bedroom at a flat in Chadwell Heath, east London, with more than 50 injuries to her body in August 2013.
The Press Association reports she had suffered numerous injuries, including a bite mark and carpet burns.
The Old Bailey heard that Muddar had invented a cast of fictitious characters on Facebook and in text messages, including “Jimmy” and Muslim spirit guide “Skyman”, which she used to seduce Chowdhury, who had strong spiritual beliefs, to poison her mind against her daughter.
Muddar talked of her hatred of Ayesha in a series of phone calls and text messages and pretended to have cancer, the prosecution said.
Earlier in the trial, prosecutor Richard Whittam QC said: “To say that their relationship was unconventional is a gross understatement.”
Chowdhury insisted that while they were “soul mate friends” her relationship with Muddar was not sexual for her.
When she met Muddar she thought she was gay because of her “tomboy” demeanour, but she changed her mind after hearing she had a boyfriend called Dave – another made-up person.
Chowdhury was later quizzed about whether there was anything sexual in her physical relationship with Muddar.
The defendant said that after Muddar moved in to her bed, she would spend all night “touching” her body, but it was only to “heal” her.
She told jurors that the older woman had moved in because it was what Skyman wanted as while they lived apart “I would not be able to heal her and she would not be able to get rid of any of the evil spirits from me”.
She went on: “When I stay with my sisters we always share the same bed and she was like my sister and I didn’t feel any different about it. It was not anything sexual related in any way whatsoever.
Muddar, of Green Lane, Ilford, Essex, and Chowdhury, of Broomfield Road, Chadwell Heath, Romford, deny murder, manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of a child between 1 March and 29 August 2013.
The trial continues.
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