Three-year-old dies from malnutrition after ‘fasting with mother’ in UK

Olabisi Abubakar, a 42-year-old mother in the United Kingdom, has been accused of killing her 3-year-old son through religious fasting.

In a court hearing on Thursday, Mark Heywood, the prosecutor, said Abubakar’s friend raised the alarm when he was unable to contact her.

Heywood said Taiwo, Abubakar’s son, weighed just 9.8kg (1st 5lb) and had died of malnutrition and dehydration.

The prosecutor said the incident happened during the COVID-19 lockdown, adding that the mother was found “thin, malnourished, and dehydrated” alongside her son.

According to Heywood, police forced open the door of her flat in Cardiff after the alarm was raised to find a “tragic and distressing scene”.

He said Abubakar had “consciously and deliberately neglected” Taiwo by failing to provide food and water and by “forcing him to fast with her”.

He said she suffered “delusions” as a result of suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

Abubakar denied manslaughter and neglect charges.

She told police she did not remember anything from the three days before the police forced entry to her flat as “she had been in heaven because she could see relatives who had died and heard angels singing”.