The 'chilling harshness and cruelty' of starved girl's parents

THE mother and stepfather of a seven-year-old girl who starved to death were jailed for her manslaughter by a judge who branded their treatment of the child "chilling in its harshness and cruelty".

Khyra Ishaq died in May 2008 when her body succumbed to an infection after months of starvation at her home in Handsworth, Birmingham.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Roderick Evans sentenced her mother, Angela Gordon, 35, to 15 years and jailed her former partner, Junaid Abuhamza, 31, indefinitely for the public's protection, with a minimum term of seven and a half years.

The pair were cleared of Khyra's murder during a trial at Birmingham Crown Court last month but convicted of her manslaughter.

Both were also given concurrent sentences for child cruelty charges, which they had admitted, relating to five other children in their care and control.

The judge told them: "It is not right to say that these children suffered from neglect. Neglect is an inadequate and inappropriate description of the way they were treated. Rather, they were subjected to a domestic regime of punishment which was chilling in its harshness and cruelty."

He told Gordon her cruelty was "horrific" and made worse because she was Khyra's mother.

During the trial, jurors heard that Khyra was removed from school in December 2007 and subjected to a punishment regime which included standing outside in the cold or in front of a fan for long periods, having cold water poured over her and being beaten with a bamboo cane.

The case sparked heavy criticism of the social services in Birmingham and led to calls for the city council's strategic director for children, young people and families, Tony Howell, to resign.

A serious case review into Khyra's death by the Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board is under way.