Mother denies starving four-year-old son

[Leonardo]

Amanda Hutton denies starving four-year-old son to death

The mummified body of a four-year-old boy was found in a cot in his mother's bedroom almost two years after he starved to death, a jury has heard.

Hamzah Khan was still dressed in a babygrow when police made the "dreadful discovery" at his house in Bradford in September 2011, the court was told.

The boy's mother, Amanda Hutton, 43, denies manslaughter and has gone on trial at Bradford Crown Court.

source

The full details of the case are disturbing, and I'm not in a position to make a judgement on whether Ms Hutton is evil, or insane - although I'm leaning towards insane. Is there even a difference between those two states?

The suffering her poor child must have experienced is unthinkable.

[Aggie]

I'm a mum and I still don't understand how some mothers don't love their kids...cause the love I have for my children I never had for anybody else in my life.

But like you said, Leo....she probablly has some type of mental illness, especially since she left the little angel in his cot until his body mummified.

The question is: didn't anybody in her family notice the baby was missing? What about the father?

[Leonardo]

I don't know about her family, the article doesn't mention anything about them. It does state she was separated from the father, and he was possibly abusive towards her prior to that.

It also says on the day of the child's death she "got a phone call to come home" after going out for medication? Was the father home and called her? This may lead to speculation the father was responsible for the child's death, and Ms Hutton couldn't cope with that.

However, the prosecution appears to suggest she was solely responsible for the death of her child, and the defence is not reported to be claiming another person was responsible, but that it was a "naturally occuring condition" that led to the baby's malnutrition and death - so I am a little confused on that part of the story.

There seems to be conflicting information - hopefully more will be known in due course.

Edited September 18, 2013 by Leonardo

[Kowalski]

Oh my God! That's awful!

Some people don't deserve to have children.....

So sad, poor little Angel...Why do people hurt their kids?? Sick monsters....

[DecoNoir]

Yup, time for me to get the stupid stick ready....

****ing people, I swear.

[Moon Gazer]

This is absolutely horrifying. It happened in Bradford, just a few miles away from where I live so there is a lot on the local (and national) news about this. She was found guilty of manslaughter yesterday and will be sentenced today.

The suffering that poor little guy must have gone through just doesn't bear thinking about. Seriously I nearly start crying when I even try and imagine it. It just breaks my heart. He was 4yrs old when he died and so malnurished and small he was wearing 6 month old baby clothes

She has also admitted the charge of neglect for 5 other children.

[Leonardo]

One of the more troubling aspects of the whole sad story for me is that no-one appeared to be aware at all of the danger the child was in - but how? People obviously knew she had a child and presumably knew she was stuggling with whatever issues drove her to alcoholism. Anyone who cared remotely would have contacted social services surely?

The little boy died in 2009, but it wasn't until 2011 that social services were contacted (by a neighbour.) What about the woman's family and friends prior to 2009 - what the hell were they doing to just ignore the situation?

It's not just a terrible tragedy, it's a sad indictment of how detached from each other modern society appears to have become.

[libstaK]

How does it take 2 years for it to be discovered that a 4 year old is dead? I feel like throwing up just thinking about the loneliness and helplessness of this child and her other children. The father should be jailed also - he had no idea whether his son was alive or dead and made no effort to find out for 2 years, that is another level of abuse in itself.

[TSS]

She gets 15yrs...will be out in half that. I can get a stiffer sentence for tax evasion......the priorities are all wrong as usual.

[Still Waters]

She gets 15yrs...

I was just coming to post this.

A judge has jailed Amanda Hutton for 15 years after she starved her four-year-old son Hamzah Khan to death, and left his body in a travel cot in her squalid home for almost two years.

The mother-of-eight was also jailed for the neglect of five of her other children and for preventing the burial of Hamzah's body.

http://www.mirror.co...p-after-2337688

[Crabby Kitten]

I don't understand why no one noticed the little boy was missing. Wasn't there a GP or a health visitor? What about other people like family and friends. I'm appalled that the other son, an older sibling of the little boy was covering up for his evil mother. Before anyone says anything, YES she was evil. So was the system in fact for ignoring this child.