MURDERER: Angela Gordon

A young girl was starved for months leading to her death, and her killers only got charged with manslaughter.

On the 25th of February 2010, Angela Gordon and Junaid Abuhamza pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq and five separate counts of child cruelty for the abuse of the five other children in their care. Gordon was sentenced to 15 years while Abuhamza was to be jailed indefinitely for the public's safety, this holding a minimum term of 7 and a half years.

But how did they get to this point? How can they abuse six children for years without consequences?

All six children's biological father, Ishaq Abuzaire, had left the home at some point in 2004 or 2006. There were claims towards him that he was abusive towards both Gordon and the children but he denies the claims.

After Abuzaire left the home one of his friends, Abuhamza, became close to Gordon. By 2007, Abuhamza had moved into the family home and became a parental figure to the children. It would seem his moving in was the turning point of severity for the abuse that the children suffered.

In court, Abuhamza tried to explain his abusive actions. He claimed to have had a traumatic childhood that imposed similar harsh "disciplinary" actions. Abuhamza's father supposedly took away food as punishment and Abuhamza told a story that he was forced to watch his father beat his younger sister to death for not flushing the toilet. He was five and she was three at the time of the story.

This is all alleged as I couldn't find anything that confirmed what he said.

The same year that Abuhamza moved in all of the children were under ten years of age, four of them having unique educational needs.

Four of the children, Khyra included, were attending the same school as each other whilst a fifth went to a different school that better accommodated their needs. Gordon's relationship with both of the schools started to deteriorate, a major factor was her obsessive issues with food. Gordon was also resistant to letting any of the children take part in P.E. or swimming lessons.

The first reported concerns were brought up to Gordon in December 2007 by school staff at Khyra's school. They stated that there was clear evidence of her stealing food from other children and her siblings were "indicating obsessive traits towards food and feeding.".

Right after this was brought up, Gordon started to get more defensive towards the school staff.

On the 7th of December 2007, Khyra had an undocumented absence from school. When the school called Gordon for an explanation, she told them that Khyra was going to be home-schooled from that point onwards. Her siblings at the same school would still continue going until further notice.

At a parent-teacher meeting a week after Khyra's last day, Gordon became aggressive with her former teacher. This would then lead to the other children attending the school for their last day on the 17th before Gordon removed them too.

On the 19th of December, the second reported concern was made by staff at the school. This time the Deputy Head Teacher made a referral to Children's Social Care (CSC).

"Concerns related to the child, information suggested the child came from a strict household and had been taking food from other children's bags. Further that a sibling had been cramming food into their mouth; both children were reported to be thin but generally clean and tidy. Information was given that both children had a statement of educational need, they were reported not to socialise well with other children. The child has been out of school following a meeting with mother who had been very hostile towards staff.".

When nothing further came from the referral the same Deputy Head Teacher called a second time that same morning. Once again nothing came from the reports so the Deputy Head and a teaching assistant when to visit the family home to check-in.

They returned to the school and faxed the referral to Children's Social Care once again. Noting "needs were identified as emotional and behavioural development, health and basic care.".

Three days later and there was no response or acknowledgement from CSC so the Deputy Head called again. CSC refused to accept the referral, suggesting that the school staff contact the police for a Safe & Well check if they were so concerned. That's exactly what the staff did.

Police arrived at the home, spotting Khyra on the doorstep, they would describe her as "fine and well".

On the 21st of December 2007, Gordon contacted Special Education Needs Assessment Service (SENAS) as she wanted the four children removed from school to be placed at their sibling's school. She stated that the reason for switching schools was the kids were "bullied by children and teachers, there was a lack of progress/improvement, failure to challenge the children sufficiently and for calling the police in relation to the child the previous week for non school attendance.". Gordon confirmed that she wouldn't attend any further meetings with the schools and wanted the contact information for school management in order to file a complaint.

Gordon also called Education Welfare Service (EWS) that same day. She told them she had to remove the children because of the "behaviour towards her children". She planned to educate the children until a suitable school was found for them all to be placed in.

There was still no action taken by CSC over the following weeks.

On the 8th of January 2008, SENAS received a letter from Gordon dated five days prior and copied to EWS. The letter was typed out, stating that she intended to educate SOME of her children from home while the others were to go back to school. It isn't stated which children but it is assumed that Khyra was a part of the group to be home-educated.

Aside from an Education Otherwise referral form being completed on the 16th of January by EWS, no further action was taken towards the welfare of the children.

SENAS called Gordon on the 25th of January to set up a check-in but she refused to allow them to visit her home. Three days later Education Social Worker (ESW) attended a meeting at Khyra's ex-school, they were handed a referral concerning several of the family members. It prompted a home visit by the staff that same day. When nobody answered the door, they simply left a note and left.

It's believed that on the 28th, the Deputy Head Teacher contacted CSC for the third time, trying to make them aware that Gordon intended to de-register all the children at the school. They needed to get SENAS involved to monitor the four children with additional educational needs.

The Head Teacher had also written a letter to the Educational Welfare Service for advice on how to handle the de-registration.

Once again CSC didn't take any of the school's concerns seriously.

A series of calls were made on January 30th motivated by an ESW. One of those calls involved the Health Visitor that hadn't seen or been in contact with the family since February the year prior after making a referral to CSC about them.

It's believed that CSC didn't act on the report.

After the series of calls were made CSC finally agreed that an initial assessment was required. They contacted EWS the following day to put in place a meeting.

The family home was visited on the 21st of February. Over 2 months after the school's initial contact and around a year after the Health Visitor's referral.

But before the visit from CSC, an Education Otherwise Advisor (IH) and a senior ESW went to the home on the 8th of February. They both stayed for about an hour, talking over schooling plans with Gordon. Not once did they see the children nor did they request to see them. Abuhamza was present throughout the meeting.

At the end of the hour, Gordon agreed to send a teaching plan by the end of the month. Expectedly, she didn't send them the plans.

February 18th the school once again raised concerns at a meeting with an ESW.

Nothing further was done regarding Khyra and her siblings until March 7th when another meeting occurred at the school, it involved SENAS and a Speech & Language Therapist. The same day SENAS received a copy of the report from February 8th's home visit with a note that confirmed the teaching plan hadn't been sent.

Three days later an ESW contacted CSC to question why a follow-up appointment was never made. Gordon had simply called to cancel the meeting.

By the time the 17th rolled by the children were all officially recorded as Educated Otherwise.

An Education Otherwise Advisor still hadn't received the teaching plans Gordon had promised to send out by the 20th of March. This forced them to contact SENAS to try and get them involved with the matter, SENAS told them they would write to Gordon.

It would take three weeks for SENAS to reach out, setting out to arrange a visit for the 16th of April. A team went to the home on the said date but received no reply.

CSC supervision held a meeting on the 21st of April in which a team manager discussed the case. "-agreed case could be closed because home tutoring had been approved. It was understood by Children's Social Care that a review would be undertaken and the family would be monitored by the EO Service.".

This comment leads me to believe that all the other concerns that CSC received from school staff and the Health Visitor had been pushed aside just to close the case as soon as they could.

The case was never written up which meant it was technically open when all the failings against Khyra and her siblings would tragically catch up to everyone involved.

On May 7th, one of Khyra's younger brothers that still attended school was preparing for a medical examination when a teacher would notice how unhealthy he appeared. The teacher would describe him in their notes as "thin, weak, tired easily, felt cold easily, skin was little better at present. Academically was making some progress, but slow, keen to participate in activities except swimming, said mother did not want this child to swim. Behaviourally whenever food was available would constantly ask for more, did not seem to chew food and had a limited social circle.". His weight was down and his height had become static.

It forced the examiner to arrange a further review in September. This hadn't been the first time that the school was concerned about his weight loss.

Gordon hadn't attended the medical.

Just ten days later, Gordon called for an ambulance a little before 6 am. Khyra had collapsed after days of an untreated sickness. She would arrive at the local hospital at 6:05 am. Twenty minutes later she was pronounced dead.

Kkyra Ishaq died from an infection caused by months of starvation on May 17th 2008. She weighed 16.8kg (2st 9lbs), had lost 40% of her body fat and her BMI was so low it was off the bottom of the medical scale.

The other five children from the household were later admitted to the hospital, two of them were found in a serious state of malnutrition and close to death. All the living children would make a full recovery.

As I put in the very beginning, Gordan and Abuhamza both pleaded guilty to manslaughter and five counts of child cruelty. They both were given manslaughter on diminished responsibility.

Gordon was found to be suffering from severe depression during the MONTH leading up to Khyra's death.

Abuhamza was found to suffer from "bouts of schizophrenia" that caused him to abuse Khyra as he thought she had a "weird face" from possession.

Gordon was sentenced to 15 years while Abuhamza was to be jailed indefinitely for the public's safety, this holding a minimum term of 7 and a half years.