Couple jailed 44 years for starving, burying three-year-old son in garden

Tai was jailed for 24 and a half years, while Naiyahmi was given a 19 and a half year sentence.

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The judge Mr Justice Wall told them: “Abiyah d!ed as a result of your wilful neglect of him. He was severely stunted in his growth – at almost four years of age he was buried in the clothes of an 18-month-old.

“I accept that there was no deliberate infliction of physical injury by either of you.”

But the judge added: “It is difficult to imagine a worse case of neglect than that which the court has encountered in this case.”

Although the couple had enjoyed the benefits of the NHS during the first 30 years of their own lives, the judge said, they had “denied this advantage to Abiyah for misplaced ideological reasons”.

“I am sure each of you played a part in starving him and failing to get medical care for him when the need for it was obvious to you.”

Former fitness instructor Tai told police in interview that he had carried out an “eight-day ritual’ hoping that Abiyah would “come back”.

But he added he eventually decided to conduct a burial in accordance with his culture on what he regarded as sacred ground.

The pair said they were living in a “kingdom” set up by Tai, which involved an unsupplemented vegan diet and adherence to a ‘slick law” legal framework he had invented.

Jurors heard they married in 2015 and changed their names from Donald Nnah and Donna Graham after forming what they viewed as their own religion.

A post-mortem examination of Abiyah’s “skeletal” remains and other tests failed to identify how he d!ed, but suggested he was also suffering from severe dental decay and six fractures to his right arm, legs and ribs, possibly caused by a fall about six weeks before his de@th.

The couple were eventually arrested in December 2022 while living in a caravan in Glastonbury, Somerset, having previously spent time living in a shipping container.

Police visited the property three times: in February 2018 when Abiyah was alive; again in September 2021 after his de@th; and then in March 2022 to assist in the couple’s removal for non-payment of rent.

Opening the case for the Crown at the start of the trial, prosecutor Jonas Hankin KC claimed the couple had jointly neglected Abiyah by failing to provide him with enough food or any medical help.

During his closing speech to jurors, Mr Hankin alleged it would have been obvious to both defendants that Abiyah, whose teeth would have been wobbly, was in considerable pain from abscesses and other ailments.

Referring to a comment made by Abiyah’s mother that “nature has a way of doing things,” Mr Hankin told the court: “That is their attitude, ‘we’re right and nature will decide’. It is breathtaking arrogance and cruelty.”

Malnutrition of the severity suffered by Abiyah was simply not seen in the UK, the barrister said, with the defendants having “for reasons best known to themselves” driven themselves and their son into conditions more commonly seen in the developing world.