Mummified Boy Found In Cot: Mother On Trial

[Jazzy]

The mummified corpse of a four-year-old boy was found in a cot in his mother's bedroom almost two years after he starved to death, a jury has been told.

Hamzah Khan's body was still dressed in a babygro when police made the "dreadful discovery" at his house in Bradford, West Yorkshire, a court has heard.

Details of how the child's body was found in September 2011 were outlined at the trial of his mother, Amanda Hutton, at Bradford Crown Court.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Paul Greaney QC told the jury that the body of Hamzah, who died on December 15 2009, was found after police entered Hutton's home because of concerns about a smell.

"What they discovered disturbed even hardened officers," Mr Greaney said.

"Within a cot in the bedroom of Amanda Hutton, a police officer named Richard Dove made a dreadful discovery.

"Within that cot, beneath other items, he found the mummified corpse of a child."

Hutton, 43, denies her son's manslaughter.

Hamzah's remains fitted into clothing intended for a baby aged six to nine months because the boy's growth had been stunted, Mr Greaney said.

"It had been stunted because he was malnourished over a lengthy period and that state of affairs resulted in his death," he said.

"In short, he starved to death. How had a child starved to death in 21st century England?"

The jury was told that Hutton, who the prosecutor said was an abuser of alcohol and cannabis, ordered pizza within hours of her son's death and continued to claim child benefit for him.

Mr Greaney said that in police interviews Hutton said she had gone to consult a pharmacist at a supermarket after her son had become particularly unwell on December 14, 2009.

"She explained that when she returned Hamzah was near to death. She sought to revive him but to no effect.

"She described placing Hamzah into his cot, making plain that she had treated his body with dignity, and it is right that we should observe that Hamzah's body was found, it was found with a teddy."

Hutton told police that things deteriorated after her son's death and she began to drink a bottle of vodka a day, Mr Greaney added.

"She made no call for assistance - for a doctor or an ambulance," he said.

The jury of four women and eight men were shown pictures of the inside of Hutton's home.

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Sad and sickening. How can a parent do something as awful as this?