Memorial to be created to Mikaeel Kular

A PERMANENT memorial to Edinburgh toddler Mikaeel Kular will be created in the community where he lived, it has emerged on what would have been his fourth birthday.

Floral tributes to Mikaeel Kular in a park near his home in Ferry Gait. Picture: Ian Rutherford

Residents in Drylaw and Muirhouse areas of Edinburgh have so far raised more than £3000 in memory of the Mikaeel, who died in January this year.

One option is to create a sculpture of Mikaeel’s smiling face on a rock near where hundreds of bouquets of flowers were left by mourners.

The community has decided not to mark Mikaeel’s birthday out of respect to his family.

Mikaeel Kular

It is understood that the boy’s surviving twin sister, Ashika, will have a birthday party at the home of her aunt Pandeep Kular in Kirkcaldy, Fife.

Mikaeel’s mother, Rosdeep Kular, 34, is to go on trial charged with murdering her son.

Residents in the area continue to mourn Mikaeel with new flowers and small memorials being placed outside his home weekly.

Amanda Spiers, 27, who lives in the Drylaw area, said: “I know that people aren’t planning to mark his birthday, but I am sure everyone will be thinking of him, it’s still so sad to think about.

“He is still on everyone’s mind, what happened will stay with people for a long time. New flowers arrive outside his door all the time.”

Amanda added: “People have been talking about a stonemason who is to come down and carve Mikaeel’s face into one of the big rocks round where all the flowers were.”

Robert Pearson, Chairman of the Tenants and Residents of Muirhouse group, said other ideas for spending the money raised included a memorial garden.

He said: “I think it’s best that the family mark the birthday in their own special way. Mikaeel will always be in everyone in North Edinburgh’s thoughts.”

Katie Pearson, 24, who also lives near by, said: “It’s just such a shame for Mikaeel, and his family. Birthdays and anniversaries pop up all the time and it makes everything raw again. When you think about his twin sister and how she will be having her birthday too, it’s just very sad. ”

Mikaeel’s body was discovered in a wooded area in Kirkcaldy on January 17 following a two-day search after he went missing from his home in Ferry Gait Crescent, Edinburgh.

It later emerged he had died from internal bleeding and peritonitis, a form of blood poisoning.

It is understood that Mikaeel’s siblings Tarin, 9, David, 7, Renika, 6, as well as Ashika, are currently living with their aunt, Pandeep Kular, at her home in Kirkcaldy, Fife.