Couple who starved and buried son, aged three, guilty of ‘breathtaking’ cruelty

A couple whose three-year-old son died following “breathtaking” neglect - found buried in a garden after they dropped out of society and set up their own “kingdom” - have been convicted of causing or allowing his death.

Jurors unanimously convicted Tai and Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah, who kept the body of Abiyah Yasharahyalah in their bed for eight days after he died from a respiratory illness, which was worsened by a “restricted” vegan diet which caused severe malnourishment, rickets, anaemia, and stunted growth.

The couple then “embalmed” and buried their toddler son in an 80cm-deep grave at the rear of their then-home in Handsworth, Birmingham, at the start of the Covid pandemic in early 2020. A two-month trial was told London-born Tai, a medical genetics graduate who also used the first name Tai-Zamarai, and former shop worker Naiyahmi ditched mainstream society and were eventually arrested in December 2022 while living in a caravan in Somerset.

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A post-mortem on Abiyah’s “skeletal” remains and other tests failed to identify how he died, but suggested he was suffering from severe dental decay and six fractures to his right arm, legs and ribs, possibly caused by a fall around six weeks before his death.

Jurors deliberated for more than 21 hours over five days before unanimously convicting the couple of neglect, perverting the course of justice and causing or allowing death.

The verdicts, delivered on Thursday, came after jurors heard that Abiyah was neglected by being given inadequate food and through a failure to summon any medical treatment as he battled a fatal respiratory illness.

The trial was told that police visited the Clarence Road property