British mother of eight convicted of manslaughter for starving son, four
Manslaughter verdict on alcoholic who left body of boy, four, to mummify in cot for two years
A British woman has been found guilty of starving her four-year-old son to death and leaving his corpse to mummify in a cot.
Amanda Hutton, a 43-year-old mother from Bradford, northern England, was responsible for the manslaughter of Hamzah Khan through gross neglect, a crown court jury found.
After the verdict police described Hutton as an "obstructive" woman who refused offers of help and went to great lengths to conceal Hamzah's death in December 2009. She showed no emotion as the foreman announced the jury's verdict.
Hutton had eight children, the oldest of them 22, when Hamzah's body was found in her bedroom almost two years after he died.
His remains were mummified, mouldy and swarming with insects when police discovered them in September 2011. Though aged four-and-a-half at the time of his death, Hamzah was so malnourished that he was wearing clothing meant for a baby no older than nine months.
Five children aged between five and 11 were found by police when they searched the house. Bradford crown court heard that the children were malnourished, with head lice and fungal infections in their nails. Some were wearing diapers despite being of school age, and appeared to crawl upstairs using their hands rather than walking.
The court had heard that Hutton was a "nasty drunk" who killed Hamzah through her "terrible failures" as an alcohol-addicted mother.
