Sex, drugs, domestic violence, jinn and death

[size=18]Baby killed for being 'possessed' [/size]

[b]The BBC News website examines the death of Samira Ullah after the child's father is found guilty of her murder. [/b]

Her short life makes for tragic reading.

Born at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, west London, on 19 July 2004 she overcame the difficulties of being two months premature and was discharged four weeks later.

When a health visitor came to see her at home a month later she described her as "thriving, gaining weight and reaching all her development milestones".

She only lived for three months.

Her father, Sitab Ullah, had worked as an educational development officer at a school in Westminster.

His Old Bailey trial heard tributes to his work from the school's head teacher and a police officer who worked closely with Ullah. He was described as a "positive influence" on the children, a third of whom were, like him, of Bangladeshi origin.

But when Sitab Ullah's father died in November 2003 he became addicted to heroin and crack cocaine. His personality changed and he became violent and delusional.

Ullah had met Salma Begum in 2002 but her family disapproved of him and felt she would be marrying "below herself". She ignored their wishes and had a traditional Islamic wedding ceremony.

She had a child by Ullah but became increasingly dependent on him after estrangement from her family.

In January 2004 she became pregnant again but as the year went on Ullah's behaviour became more erratic as his drug addiction took hold.

After Samira was born Ullah became more violent towards Begum and started hallucinating - seeing writing on her body and on the walls.

She had revealed to him that before they met she had been pregnant by another man and underwent an abortion.

[b]'Possessed' [/b]

This clearly played on Ullah's mind - he became convinced Begum was having an affair and would set up a Dictaphone and a camcorder in their tiny Kilburn flat when he went out.

He would replay them on his return and imagined his wife was telling his ex-lover she loved him.

On one occasion he chopped up the marital bed with a samurai sword, claiming that Begum's lover was hiding inside.

When Samira was brought home from hospital he became convinced she was possessed by spirits, known as jinn.

Ullah later claimed he had employed an imam to drive out the spirits.

But the imam, Abu Ahmed, told the trial he had never been to the house, had never performed such a purification ceremony and did not know the family.

Abu Ahmed, who had worked at a Maida Vale mosque, told the trial it was possible for people to become possessed by jinn and in such circumstances "blessings" or "purifications" did take place.

But he said babies were considered "pure" within Islam and he himself had never blessed a baby which had been possessed.

Begum told the court how Ullah's delusions about Samira became worse and said: "He did not want me to feed her too much. He complained she was becoming greedy because he thought the thing inside her wanted to be fed all the time."

She once chastised him for flicking the soles of Samira's feet. He replied: "I'm not hurting her. I'm hurting the thing inside her."

Throughout September and October Ullah's physical assaults on Samira became worse, culminating on 16 October 2004 when Ullah shook her so violently she incurred a fatal brain injury.

Judge Kramer said the post-mortem revealed a "catalogue of injuries", including cigarette burns to the face and lips, nipples had been "destroyed" by pinching, badly damaged feet and several fractured ribs.

Damage to her ears suggested she had been picked up by them and the piece of skin connecting her gums to her top lip was torn away.

The judge pointed out that Ullah's lawyer, Bob Marshall-Andrews, did not seek to rely on his client's drug addiction or state of mind as a defence and no psychiatric experts had been called to testify on his behalf.

Judge Kramer said: "He (Ullah) is at a loss to say who might have inflicted the injuries".

The judge then told the jurors it was up to them to decide if Ullah was responsible for Samira's death and, if he was, whether he had intended to kill Samira or intended to cause her really serious harm.

They were given the options of murder and manslaughter, the latter being a charge which does not rely on an intention to kill. They found him guilty of murder.

Begum has already pleaded guilty to child cruelty neglect and will be sentenced later.

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4547544.stm]BBC[/url]