The nursery nurse’s cruel abuse of her three-year-old son she did not want revealed

A cruel mother who worked as a nurse for 10 years beat and neglected her own child, who she said she never wanted to give birth to. Before the baby was born, Madihah Ahmed threatened to look online for ways to end the pregnancy and repeatedly told her husband she didn’t want to have the baby.

Leicester Crown Court heard on Friday that Ahmed, now 29, became even more upset when she learned the unborn child – her second child – was a boy. She was lying on her stomach and running upstairs holding her older son, despite medical advice not to do so, the court heard.

Prosecutor Abigail Hill told the court: “Her response was that she didn’t care, that she wanted to ‘defeat the baby’ and that it was her body.”

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After her son was born in August 2018, Ahmed often failed to change the baby’s nappy or feed him, complaining to her husband that the baby was ugly, the court heard. Mrs Hill said: “The defendant refused to feed him and fed his other child in front of him.

“If he asked for food, she would get angry and throw food at him.”

The worst cruelty involved physical attacks on the boy, which began around his third birthday and continued for more than a year before her arrest. Ahmed’s husband reported his wife and when Leicestershire Police investigated, photographs were taken showing scratches on the boy’s face and on one occasion she had hit the child, causing a split lip.

Several incidents of cruelty were described during the court hearing.

• In April 2021, when the little boy was three years old and playing with his older brother’s toys, Ahmed told him he could not play with the other child’s things, and when he complained, she slapped him in the face, swearing at him and shouting at him . a dog”. The boy suffered an injury to his nose.
• In July 2022, during a family trip to Leicester city centre, her husband caught her pinching and slapping their son. When he demanded to know why she was attacking him, she replied: “It’s annoying. Shut your mouth”.
• In August of the same year, there was an incident where she forced the boy off a trampoline so his older brother could play on it alone, and the younger boy suffered a split lip. After that incident, social workers attended, but Ahmed denied any abuse of the boy.
• Once after that, Ahmed was feeding her older son grapes but refusing to give them to her younger son. Her husband took the younger boy to the kitchen to get him some grapes and Ahmed followed, grabbed the boy and squeezed his arm, making him scream in pain.

At that point, her husband called the police. The court heard Ahmed, of Hudson Close, New Parks, Leicester, has now been separated from her husband and her children have been taken. After being charged, she initially pleaded not guilty to child cruelty and an additional charge related to an incident in which she allegedly burned the boy with a set of hair straighteners.

Her trial was due to take place in January, but she changed her plea to guilty of child cruelty while continuing to deny the charge of the hair straightener attack. The second charge has been ordered to be on file, meaning the Crown Prosecution Service will not prosecute the matter at this stage, but may do so in the future.

A recording the husband made of Ahmed shouting and swearing at her younger son and slapping and hitting him was played in court. The abuse of the recording lasted about five minutes.

Grahame James, representing Ahmed, said his client was “at the end of her rope” and was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of her husband. He said Ahmed worked as a nurse for 10 years – until after she was accused of cruelty – at a children’s nursery without any complaints. Mr James said: “You can only conclude that the situation at home was the catalyst for feeling bad and losing touch with her child.”

But Judge William Harbage said her husband’s record contradicted that. He said: “What the recording reveals is her alone with the children and no backdrop of rowing between husband and wife – there is inappropriate language, the sound of hitting and slapping.

“It’s hard to blame her partner when he’s not there.” Mr James said Ahmed’s partner “raised her blood” by arguing with her before turning on the recorder and going outside to smoke a cigarette knowing she would shout at their son.

Mr James urged the judge to give his client a community sentence instead of jail. Judge Harbage agreed that it could.

The judge told Ahmed: “It seems you didn’t want this child, especially when you realized it was a boy. There is a background of difficulties in timely diaper changing and feeding.

“But then it turns to violence. He was pushed, he suffered a split lip, he was slapped. This lasted for a considerable period of just over a year.

“Children this age should be nurtured and cherished and not verbally and physically abused.”

The judge said the case crossed the custodial threshold, but he would not immediately put her in jail. He said: “Your children have been taken from you now and that is hard for any mother to bear.”

Ahmed was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for two years. He was ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work and spend 25 days in programs as directed by the probation service.