June 2013

Mother who threw her newborn baby daughter 40ft down rubbish chute at block of flats while suffering from post-natal depression is jailed for two and a half years

• Jaymin Abdulrahman, 25, threw six-day old child down chute at block of flats in Wolverhampton last September

• Baby girl survived but suffered severe skull fractures and brain injuries

• Mother, originally from Irag, was suffering from severe post-natal depression

• Abdulrahman guilty of inflicting GBH but cleared of causing GBH and attempted murder at Birmingham Crown Court today

• Judge Kate Thirwall: ‘You will live with this for the rest of your life’

A mother who threw her newborn baby 40ft down a tower block rubbish chute while suffering from post-natal depression was jailed for two and a half years today.

Jaymin Abdulrahman, 25, accepted she put her six-day-old baby girl down the chute but told the jury she had not planned the incident and had ‘lost control of her thoughts’ at the time

Reconstruction – Animated but still distressing

The baby, who cannot be named for legal reasons, miraculously survived but suffered skull fractures and brain injuries after she fell into a bin store at a block of flats in Wolverhampton last September.

Experts estimated the force the impact was the equivalent of being in a 30mph car crash without a seat belt.

Today a jury of seven men and five women found Abdulrahman guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm but cleared her of two other charges including attempted murder.

Birmingham Crown Court heard how Abdulrahman initially told police that her child had been kidnapped by strangers but the baby was found a few hours later, apparently lifeless, at the bottom of the chute.

The baby was found in a large bin wrapped in a piece of material after she was thrown down the rubbish chute

Prosecutors alleged that the Iraqi national deliberately placed her baby daughter into the chute with the intention of killing her.

But Abdulrahman, who accepted that she put her baby into the chute, told the jury she was ‘tired, sad and exhausted’ in the week after her daughter’s birth and unaware of why she was crying.

Rachel Brand QC, defending Abdulrahman, told the court that her client had been suffering from a post-natal psychosis – a severe form of post-natal depression.

Describing Abdulrahman, who came to the UK from Iraq in 2011, as a competent and loving mother, Miss Brand also argued that her illness meant she was not capable of ‘forming an intent to either kill or cause really serious injury to her baby’.

Answering questions from Ms Brand, Abdulrahman added that she had not ‘planned’ to do what she did and had not thought about what she was going to do.

‘Even now as I am speaking to you, I am still in a state of disbelief of what I have done. I have lost control of my thoughts when I did so.

‘I can’t tell whether I was crying at the time or not, but I have done this. I wasn’t aware of what I was doing. If I thought that by doing so I would do some harm to the baby, I wouldn’t have done it.’

Jailing Abdulrahman, judge Mrs Justice Kate Thirlwall said she accepted that the incident was not premeditated and that Abdulrahman was suffering from post-natal psychosis – a severe form of post-natal depression – at the time.

She said: ‘On September 2 last year you gave birth to your baby daughter.

Six days later you placed her in a black bin liner and you placed that bin liner in the rubbish chute and closed that chute. 

‘She fell from the fifth floor. She sustained critical head injuries from which she will never fully recover. 

‘You gave a false story to your husband and to the police about the baby being abducted. That story was obviously nonsense. 

‘It’s quite clear that the jury were satisfied that you were suffering from postpartum psychosis (severe post-natal depression) at the time you acted. 

‘Anyone who sat through the whole trial will understand exactly how they came to that conclusion. 

‘As you said yourself, you were her mother. You should have been her guardian. You will have to live with the consequences of your actions for the rest of your life.’

Abdulrahman was told she will serve half of her sentence in prison before serving the rest on licence. 

She showed no emotion as she was led down from the dock. 

Prosecutor Andrew Smith QC said the baby girl suffered serious brain injuries and was likely to need intensive support from medical professionals. 

He also said it was unlikely she would be able to feed herself orally and that she was developing the signs of a severe form of cerebral palsy. 

Abdulrahman’s barrister Rachel Brand QC told the court: ‘When you describe this as an utterly tragic case, one cannot be accused of exaggerating. 

‘This was a life shattering event for this little family. 

‘She (the baby) makes steady but slow medical progress. He (Abdulrahman’s husband) has been constant in his attendance at the hospital and that’s where he stays now. 

‘He’s not here but I know he will welcome her back with open arms.’

Abdulrahman moved to the UK to live in Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands, with her arranged marriage husband Mohamad Amin, 32, in August 2011.

She told the jury she was happy in the marriage and she and her husband started trying for a baby as soon as she arrived in Britain before she eventually fell pregnant early in 2012.

But days after giving birth, the court heard Abdulrahman suffered post natal depression.

On the day she attacked the tot she also smashed up the Moses basket which she also lobbed down the rubbish chute.

Police released a shocking digital reconstruction of the baby’s fall which revealed it took just 2.2 seconds for the tot to fall from the fifth floor of the tower block to the ground.

Experts said the impact the baby suffered was the equivalent of her being in a car crash at 30mph without wearing a seat belt.

The baby was found in a communal rubbish area on the ground floor by Mr Amin wrapped in a headscarf-like material and surrounded by broken pieces of the tot’s Moses basket.