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5,000 sign petition in protest at mother’s sentence for child murder (26 August 2014)

Date: 26/08/2014
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, 5,000 sign petition in protest at mother’s sentence for child murder

Neighbours and members of the public who helped a supposedly distraught mother search for her son have provoked a backlash after she was sentenced to just 11 years for his murder.

Mother-of-five Rosdeep Adekoya, 34, from Edinburgh in Scotland beat her three-year-old son to death and buried him in woods before sparking a search for him, after reporting him missing in January last year.

At her trial the court was told Adekoya had inflicted a catalogue of abuse on the little boy, Mikaeel Kular. The court heard she had searched online for articles about not loving her son under the search term “I find it hard to love my son”.

Mikaeel was savagely beaten by his mother on a holiday and died two days later. She hid his body in a suitcase and buried it in woods in Kirkcaldy, Fife, 25 miles from their home, before reporting him missing.

She had actually beaten her son after he had been sick, the court was told.

After she had reported him missing from home, a hunt was launched, involving neighbours and members of the public who volunteered to try and find Mikaeel.

Eventually Adekoya led police to where her son’s body was buried.

Adekoya was not tried for Mikaeel’s murder, however, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of culpable homicide.

She was sentenced to 11 years in jail by a judge, but could be free within seven years. Had she been tried for murder, Adekoya could have faced 35 years in jail.

Mikaeel’s father Zahid Saeed told the Daily Mail that he considered her “wicked” and her actions “despicable”.

It is reported that Adekoya was known to be a frequent user of cocaine – and regularly left her children to enjoy a party lifestyle, including visiting nightclubs.

Local people who joined in the search for Mikaeel have alleged that by Adekoya pleading guilty to the lesser charge of culpable homicide, social services and the police have been protected, as their evidence and details of case notes from social services were not submitted to the court during the trial.

Mikaeel and his twin sister had been taken into care twice by social services – but he was allowed back into the care of his mother on both occasions. However, when the family moved from Kirkcaldy to Edinburgh it appears social services stopped monitoring the family weeks before Mikaeel was killed.

The Mail reports that as Adekoya’s sentence was handed down in court, the judge Lord Glennie said:

“Striking a child even once is bad enough – striking him heavily and repeatedly with hand and fist when he was being sick again and again simply beggars belief.”

Up to 5,000 local residents have now signed a petition protesting at the decision not to prosecute Adekoya for murder. They claim the abuse she inflicted on the little boy and the fact she did not call an ambulance when he was gravely injured justify a charge of murder.

Adekoya’s defence lawyer has dismissed those who signed the petition as an “ill-informed mob”.

An independent significant-case review into Mikaeel’s care is to be held, however.

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