Parents jailed for causing son’s death after body found buried

A couple has been jailed following the discovery of their severely malnourished son’s body buried in the garden of their former residence. The body of three-year-old Abiyah was discovered behind a house in Birmingham. This occurred nine months after Tai Yasharahyalah, 42, and Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah, 43, had been evicted from the property. Last week, the couple was found guilty of causing Abiyah’s death. His body had been located at the house on Clarence Road, Handsworth. On Thursday at Coventry Crown Court, Tai Yasharahyalah received a prison sentence of 24-and-a-half years, and Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah was sentenced to 19-and-a-half years. During an eight-week trial, the court was informed that the couple lived off-grid and had established their own unique belief system, drawing from a combination of New Age mysticism and West African religion. Following Abiyah’s death, his body was kept inside their home for eight days. Subsequently, it was embalmed using frankincense and myrrh before a ritualistic burial in their garden. During sentencing, Mr Justice Wall stated that their son died “as a result of your wilful neglect of him.” He further noted that the three-year-old had a “catalogue of injury and disease” at the time of his death. The couple heard the judge express his belief that they both realized how unwell their son was prior to his death. “I am sure that 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,” he said. He continued: “When Abiyah died you did not call an ambulance or seek any medical assistance in the hope that his life could be saved. Instead you took his body into the back garden and there buried it.” During the sentencing hearing, the court was informed that Tai Yasharahyalah had been attacked twice in the week since his imprisonment following the guilty verdict, including an assault in a holding cell while he was en route to Thursday’s hearing. During the trial, jurors were informed that the couple had been evicted from their Birmingham home in March 2022, before police discovered their son’s body in December of the same year. After his exhumation, Abiyah was determined to have been in a severely malnourished state and to have suffered from a range of other health problems at the time of his death. These issues included bone fractures, rickets, anaemia, stunted growth, and severe dental decay. Post-mortem tests were unable to ascertain the exact cause of Abiyah’s death. However, experts stated that if the three-year-old died from a respiratory illness, as described by his parents, the effects of malnutrition would have been a “more than minimal” cause of his death. Both parents had denied charges of neglect, causing or allowing the death of a child, and perverting the course of justice. During the trial, the court heard that Tai Yasharahyalah had styled himself as the head of a fictional country, for which the couple created their own passports. The couple claimed to have renounced their citizenship, and he was referred to as “King” by his wife and her family for a period of time. Tai Yasharahyalah, a former medical genetics student who later quit the field, invented his own laws and claimed to have established his own kingdom. Their beliefs led them to adhere to a restrictive vegan diet, which resulted in all members of the family falling into a state of malnutrition. Mr Justice Wall stated that the couple prioritized their beliefs over the welfare of their child. He said: “Your motivation for acting as you did was your prioritisation of your distorted system of beliefs over their welfare. You were prepared to live with any consequences which flowed from your adherence to these beliefs, including the disability or death of the children.” Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X, and Instagram. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.