A ‘dreadfully neglected’ three-year-old boy who was ‘secretly’ buried in his parent’s back garden was ‘invisible and lost’ to child services in his life, a review has found.
Abiyah Yasharahyalah’s broken, deformed bones showed signs of severe malnutrition, rickets, anaemia, stunted growth and dental disease when it was found at a Birmingham address in December 2022.
It had been home to him and his parents Tai and Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah, 42 and 43, who were convicted of child cruelty and perverting the court of justice in December.
A child safeguarding practice review has now revealed how authorities gave ‘very little’ attention to Abiyah in ‘very limited’ meetings.
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Social workers also showed a lack of curiosity about how the lifestyle and beliefs of Abiyah’s parents impacted his health.
The review’s chair said their findings raised ‘very serious questions’ about local and national safeguarding systems.
Tai and Naiyahmi, married in 2015 and changed their names from Donald Nnah and Donna Graham after forming what they viewed as their own religion, their trial heard.
They implemented an unsupplemented vegan diet and adherence to a ‘slick law’ legal framework Tai had invented.
Abiyah was left in a ‘state of chronic malnutrition’, ultimately leading to his’s death from a respiratory illness in early 2020.
They then kept his body in their bed for eight days before burying his body in an 80cm-deep grave, hiding his death from family and the authorities.
The three-year-old’s body was found in December 2022 after his parents were evicted.
Abiyah’s mum, who took part in the review, still insisted she believed she was ‘doing the right thing at the time’, but wished she’d done more research intothe diet.
Reviewers concluded today that the three-year-old was ‘was only ever seen by a small number of professionals during his lifetime, and for a limited time only’.
Social workers showed ‘very little insight into (Abiyah’s) existence, health or welfare’ in meetings in check ins which were ‘very limited’, the review said.
These included contact with a social worker in London and four visits to a children’s centre in Birmingham in 2018.
The police also visited the family when Abiyah was alive in 2019, but ‘no details were recorded’ about the child, with his presence ‘almost invisible’ on the records.
A safeguarding meeting in March 2020 noted the boy had not been seen by them since his assessment at six weeks old, with appointments at the one and two-year marks missed, health visitor records said.
A follow-up inquiry was then planned but never held, with no record of why not.
Reviewers, from Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership, said the coronavirus lockdown likely a contributed to this.
Experts also said his parents ‘often distracted or diverted professional attention’ away from Abiyah’s safety.
‘Parental resistance of advice, support or authority ultimately resulted in (Abiyah) becoming invisible and lost from professional view,’ they said.
The findings also argue that authorities failed to show enough curiosity in the parent’s belief system, which how their ability to realise how these beliefs impacted Abiya’s care.
Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership’s review said social workers need to be ‘confident to ask questions about different cultures and belief systems without fear of being perceived as discriminatory’.
Report author Kevin Ball added: ‘If any family engages in cultural practices which are harmful to children, this must not be overlooked, and the safeguarding of children being impacted by harmful cultural practice is paramount.’
Mum Naiyahmi said she had been in a ‘bubble’ which stopped her realising that her parenting had harmed Abiya.
She added it was ‘hard to accept that my approach did not lead to the best outcomes for my child’.
Annie Hudson, Chair of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, said the review ‘highlights important learning, including about how Abiyah became invisible and lost from the view and oversight of professionals.
‘As this review highlights, professionals must always be mindful of whether their views about parents, including their faith, race and culture, is inhibiting their capacity to be questioning and act together in a timely way to safeguard and protect children.’
Partnership co-chairs James Thomas and Sue Harrison added: ‘Protecting children out of professional sight is a real challenge, given the limits of statutory powers to ensure all children are regularly seen.
‘Our partnership has made this one of our top strategic priorities to ensure that we do everything we possibly can to identify risk to those children who are out of sight.’
Abiyah’s parents were arrested on December 9 2022, with son’s body discovered five days later.
Tai was jailed for 24 and a half years, while Naiyahmi was given a 19 and a half year sentence.
They were found guilty of perverting the course of justice, causing or allowing the death of a child, and child neglect.
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