Schizophrenic mum who stabbed baby daughter to death before dousing her in ACID and wrapping body in bin liners claims she was ‘driven by voices’
Paranoid Iman Omar Yousef, 32, was "driven by voices" to murder three-year-old Alia Ahmed Jama on February 13, 2010
A SCHIZOPHRENIC mum who stabbed her baby daughter to death and doused her in acid has been detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.
Paranoid Iman Omar Yousef, 32, was "driven by voices" to murder three-year-old Alia Ahmed Jama on February 13, 2010.
A court heard she feared Alia would be taken away so slashed her dozens of times before corroding her skin, bones and internal organs with chemicals.
Yousef's family in Leicester raised the alarm when she arrived without her daughter later that day and police raided the Somalian's home in Erdington, Birmingham.
Officers forced entry and discovered tragic Alia decomposed on bin bags at 4.02pm and arrested Yousef on suspicion of murder.
The tot's body had dozens of stab wounds to her upper body, front and back and corrosive agent was applied after she was either unconscious or dead.
In October 2010, Yousef was deemed unfit to enter a plea and detained under the Mental Health Act.
The court heard Yousef had since been permitted escorted community leave from September 2014 and unescorted visits since May last year.
Today Yousef was finally deemed fit to plead and admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Worcester Crown Court.
She was detained indefinitely under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act and restricted under Section 41 of the act.
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Sentencing, Mrs Justice Sue Carr QC said: "Alia was found dead in an upstairs bedroom wearing only a pair of tights and was partially wrapped in black bin liners.
"There were apparent severe burns to her body. She had extensive damage to her trunk due to external application of a potent corrosive agent.
"Post mortem examination results also revealed that Ali had been stabbed repeatedly whilst lying on the bedroom floor with the blade having penetrated completely through the body.
"You accept that you killed Alia and that you intended to do so."
Mrs Justice Carr said Yousef began to suffer from schizophrenia in 2001, characterised by "bizarre delusions and auditory hallucinations".
She said: "Your schizophrenia went untreated for some eight years prior to the death of your daughter.
"You became paranoid and your behaviour unpredictable. You frequently moved houses and had frequent arguments with your neighbours.
"You had bizarre persecutory ideas and heard voices.
"In the time leading up to it you became increasingly fearful that your family would harm you and your daughter.
"Voices were telling you that your family was not your real family. You feared that your daughter would be taken away from you and harmed.
"Voices told you that you could protect your daughter by killing her.
"You gave Alia some milk and put her to bed. Your voices told you to kill her to protect her and you believed them.
"You tried once, but put Alia back to bed. After Alia went back to sleep you removed her again from her bed and put her on the big bag.
"Your voices told you it was 'now or never' and you stabbed her with a knife from the kitchen.
"Your voices told you to then leave her alone and not to call the police.
";They told you to go to Leicester, where you went, dropping the knife in a bin outside a house in Leicester.
"You have not been able to recall applying any form of corrosive substance to the body.
"Your offending is directly and wholly attributable to your paranoid schizophrenia.
"There is no indication that you did anything other than love your daughter and, at the time, in killing her, you believed you were protecting her."
Prosecutor Robert Price said: "On February 12 Yousef and her daughter attended Steel House Police Station and spoke with a police constable demanding he find them a place to stay.
"She said people from Leicester had been about at her house and will get in, but she was told there was no accommodation available.
"She said 'why won't you help me, you are putting me at risk'.
"The series of concerns were entirely imaginary."
Mr Price said Alia was last seen walking home with her mum that day before Yousef arrived at her family's home in Leicester the next day.
He said: "Members of her family questioned her about the whereabouts of her daughter.
"She said she was at school. Her family pointed out it was a Saturday and she changed her tale and said she had left her in London with a friend.
"She said she had been kicked out of her house and been living in London for two weeks.
"Her family called the police. At 4.02pm officers attender Yousef's home and entered by forced entry.
"They found the body in the middle bedroom in a shocking scene.
"It is reasonable to infer from various findings she was struck on a number of occasions almost certainly with a knife."
The court heard Yousef's hallucinations and delusions were the "lethal cocktail" that killed her daughter.
Giving evidence, Dr John Croft, consultant forensic psychiatrist, said: "The mental disorder entirely explains her actions at the time."
Alwyn Jones, defending, said: "The auditory and visual hallucinations were the lethal cocktail that led to the tragic loss of young life.
"The voices told her it would be in her interests and her daughter would be safe in death.
"There is evidence of this lady being a caring mother who was overprotective of her daughter.
"But unfortunately the illness that began to manifest itself in 2001 and she received no treatment by 2010.
"Whatever sentence the court can pass will sit alongside the knowledge of this defendant that she is responsible for the death of her own daughter and that is something she will have to struggle with."
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