Mother 'claimed child possessed'

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A mother accused of starving her seven-year-old daughter to death had claimed the child was possessed by an evil spirit, a court has heard.

Angela Gordon, 34, and Junaid Abuhamza, 30, both of Leyton Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, deny murdering Khyra Ishaq.

Birmingham Crown Court was shown police footage of a boy aged 13 who was in the couple's care when Khyra died last May.

The boy said Ms Gordon told him the spirit was controlling Khyra's body after she "accepted it as a friend".

Mr Abuhamza pleaded guilty last week to five cruelty charges relating to other children.

Ms Gordon denies the charges of child cruelty, which are alleged to have been committed between December 2007 and 17 May 2008.

'Bones showing'

In an interview with officers the day after Khyra's death, the boy, known in court as Child A, said that on 15 May 2008 the seven-year-old was lying asleep in her mother's lap in a bedroom.

He said Ms Gordon told him Khyra had "dropped down" as she walked after a spirit "got into her body".

The boy said: "When I came into the room she (Ms Gordon) told me she (Khyra) was walking and she just dropped down into the floor.

"They were spraying her face with water trying to wake her up.

"She (Gordon) was saying 'wake up Khyra', she was saying 'can you hear me?'"

In the interview footage, the boy said Khyra spent most of the two days leading up to her death asleep - not even waking when her mother bathed her.

She (Khyra) was sometimes naughty, she don't listen. She stands in detention Child A

He also told police that in the days leading up to Khyra's death he had seen her bones through her skin as she slept on a mattress, the court heard.

Ms Gordon had tried to feed her as she slept by giving her an orange and lemon medicine mixture, he said.

The boy told the court that he and five other children in the care of the defendants would take lessons in the lounge area from the couple.

If they did not listen to the questions correctly they would "get detention", he said.

Asked to describe Khyra he said: "She was sometimes naughty, she don't listen. She stands in detention."

The court heard that the children would normally eat a breakfast of porridge and fruit before school. They had dinner in the evening, between 1900 and 2000, he said.

The prosecution alleges Angela Gordon and Junaid Abuhamza murdered Khyra by starving her "for weeks or possibly months".

The trial continues.