Nursery nurse's cruel abuse of three-year-old son she did not want revealed

The violence went on for more than a year. Stock image.
The violence went on for more than a year. Stock image. -Credit:Getty


A cruel mother who worked as a nursery nurse for 10 years beat and neglected her own toddler, who she said she had never wanted to give birth to. Before the child was born, Madihah Ahmed threatened to look online for ways to end the pregnancy and repeatedly told her husband she did not want to have the baby.

Leicester Crown Court heard on Friday that Ahmed, now 29, became even more upset when she found out the unborn baby - her second child - was a boy. She would lie on her stomach and run upstairs holding her older son, despite medical advice to stop doing that, the court heard.

Prosecutor Abigail Hill told the court: "Her response was that she didn't care, that she wanted to 'defecate the baby' and that it was her body."

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After her son was born, in August 2018, Ahmed often failed to change the baby's nappy or feed him, complaining to her husband that the baby was ugly, the court heard. Ms Hill said: "The defendant refused to feed him and would feed her other child in front of him.

"If he requested food she would become angry and throw food at him."

The worst of the cruelty involved physical assaults on the boy, which began around his third birthday and went on for more than a year before her arrest. Ahmed's husband reported his wife, and when Leicestershire Police investigated, photographs were taken showing scratches to the boy's face, and on one occasion she had hit the toddler, causing a split lip.

Several incidents of cruelty were described at the court hearing.

  • In April 2021, when the little boy was three and was playing with his older brother's toys, Ahmed told him he could not play with the other child's belongings, and when he complained, she slapped him in the face, swearing at him and calling him a "dog". The boy suffered an injury to his nose.

  • In July 2022 during a family trip to Leicester city centre, her husband caught her pinching and slapping their son. When he demanded to know why she was attacking him, she replied: "He's annoying. Shut your gob."

  • In August the same year there was an incident in which she forced the boy off a trampoline so that his older brother could play alone on it, and the younger boy suffered a split lip. After that incident, social workers attended, but Ahmed denied any abuse of the boy.

  • On one occasion after that, Ahmed was feeding her older son grapes but refusing to give any to her younger son. Her husband took the younger boy to the kitchen to get him some grapes and Ahmed followed them in, grabbed the boy and squeezed his arm, causing him to scream in pain.

At that point, her husband called the police. The court heard that Ahmed, of Hudson Close, New Parks, Leicester, was now separated from her husband and her children had been taken away. After being charged, she initially pleaded not guilty to child cruelty and a further charge relating to an incident in which she allegedly burned the boy with a set of hair straighteners.

Her trial was due to take place in January, but she changed her plea to guilty to child cruelty while continuing to deny the allegation of the hair straighteners assault. That second charge was ordered to lie on file, meaning the Crown Prosecution Service will not take the matter to trial at this stage but can do in the future.

The court was played a recording the husband made of Ahmed screaming and swearing at her younger son and slapping and hitting him. The abuse on the recording went on for about five minutes.

Grahame James, representing Ahmed, said his client had been "at the end of her tether" and was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of her husband. He said Ahmed had worked as a nurse for 10 years - until after she was charged with cruelty - at a children's nursery without any complaints. Mr James said: "You can only conclude the home situation was the catalyst for the bad feeling and loss of temper with her child."

But Judge William Harbage said the recording by her husband contradicted that. He said: "What the recording reveals is her on her own with the children and no background of rowing between husband and wife - there's inappropriate language, the sound of hitting and slapping.

"It's difficult to blame it on her partner when he's not there." Mr James said Ahmed's partner had "raised her blood" by arguing with her before starting the recorder and going outside for a cigarette knowing she would shout at their son.

Mr James urged the judge to give his client a community punishment instead of sending her to jail. Judge Harbage agreed that he could.

The judge told Ahmed: "You don't seem to have wanted this child, particularly when you realised he was a boy. There's a background of difficulty changing his nappy in a timely way and feeding.

"But it then goes on to violence. He was pushed, suffered a split lip, was slapped. This went on for a considerable period of just over a year.

"Children of that age should be nurtured and cherished and not abused verbally and physically."

The judge said the case crossed the custody threshold but that he would not jail her immediately. He said: "Your children have now been taken away from you and that is difficult for any mother to bear."

Ahmed was given a nine-month sentence, suspended for two years. She was ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work and spend 25 days on programmes as directed by the probation service.