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Mikaeel Kular: Mother Rosdeep Adekoya admits 'culpable homicide' of toddler Mikaeel Kular: Mother Rosdeep Adekoya admits 'culpable homicide' of toddler
(about 9 hours later)
The mother of three-year-old Mikaeel Kular has pleaded guilty to killing her son. A mother broke down and confessed to killing her “missing” three-year-old son after being confronted with evidence that she had made a 50-mile round trip to dump his body.
Rosdeep Adekoya, 34, was charged with murdering the toddler but admitted a reduced charge of culpable homicide at the High Court in Edinburgh today. Rosdeep Adekoya lost her temper and killed her son, Mikaeel Kular, inflicting more than 40 separate injuries, before hiding his body in woodland inside a suitcase. She then tried to cover up her crime by reporting him missing, sparking a huge search by police and the community in January this year.
A major search was launched after the boy was reported missing from his Edinburgh home in January. But a police examination of her computer revealed she had used search terms including “I find it hard to love my son”, “Why am I so aggressive with my son” and “Get rid of bruises”.
His body was later found around 25 miles away in woodland at Kirkcaldy, Fife. They confronted the 34-year-old with evidence from her mobile phone provider that showed that she had driven from her Edinburgh home to Fife the day after her son died.
Adekoya, a prisoner at Cornton Vale jail near Stirling, admitted assaulting and killing Mikaeel at the family's flat in Ferry Gait Crescent and hiding his body in woodland in Fife. She broke down and took officers to where she had dumped her son’s body, wrapped in a duvet cover inside a suitcase, behind her sister’s home in Kirkcaldy. “It was an accident and I panicked,” she told police.
She pleaded guilty to attempting to defeat the ends of justice by pretending to police he had gone missing, sparking a search by the emergency services and members of the public. Adekoya was charged with murder but pleaded guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday to the lesser charge of culpable homicide. She will be sentenced next month.
A major police investigation was launched after Mikaeel was reported missing from his Ferry Gait Crescent home in the Scottish capital Adekoya admitted repeatedly punching her son and causing his body to hit against a hard object or inflicting blunt injuries on his head and body between January 12 and 15. A major police investigation was launched after Mikaeel was reported missing from his Ferry Gait Crescent home in the Scottish capital
She admitted wrapping Mikaeel's body in a duvet cover, putting it in a suitcase and driving to Dunvegan Avenue in Kirkcaldy, Fife, where she hid the case under a bush in woods behind a house. The court heard that she attacked her son after he was repeatedly sick following a family outing to a Nando’s restaurant in January.
She had called 999 to report her son missing to police, telling officers he got out of bed and climbed on a stool to unlock the front door of his home. Adekoya – who suffered from long-standing mental health problems – dragged him to the shower and beat him on the back as he lay over the edge of the bath, causing fatal injuries.
She admitted causing a major search for her son, involving police, the fire service, coastguard, mountain rescue crews and members of the public. He died two days later after his condition worsened and he was kept home from nursery. The court heard that his life could have been saved had she taken him to a doctor but she did not do so because of the bruising. Advocate depute Alex Prentice said: “The pain would have increased significantly while Mikaeel became dangerously ill … finally dying as a result of the injuries inflicted upon him by the accused.”
Advocate depute Alex Prentice told the court: "The basis for the plea tendered being accepted is that the Crown accepts that the accused had no intention to kill Mikaeel and that the assault perpetrated upon him, although severe, fell short of the wicked recklessness required for murder." Adekoya found his body the next morning, putting him in a suitcase before taking his twin sister to nursery. She later drove to Fife to dump the body and reported him missing the following day.
PA Brian McConnachie QC, counsel for the defence, told the court that Adekoya was not a monster. “It appears from every source … that this has been a brief period when this young woman has lost her temper and behaved in a way which is totally out of character for her,” he said. “She would have to live with the consequences for the rest of her life.”
Adekoya had planned to put Mikaeel and his twin sister up for adoption following the break-up of her relationship with their father, but later changed her mind.