The tragedy of Khyra Ishaq's death

The tragedy that befell Khyra Ishaq is hard to take. The seven-year-old starved to death as bowls of fresh fruit, tins of sweets and shelves of groceries filled the kitchen of her family home. A lock had been fitted high up on the kitchen doors to keep Khyra and the four other children in the house away from the food.

If the children were caught taking any of the food they were made to stand outside in the cold, and were beaten or forced to overeat until they vomited.

At the time of her death, in May 2008, Khyra weighed 16.8kg (2st 9lb). She had lost about 40% of her body fat, and her body mass index was so low it was off the bottom of the scale of medical charts.

Two other children at the house in Handsworth, Birmingham, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, were also found in a serious state of malnutrition and at risk of dying.

Only her mother, Angela Gordon, and Gordon's partner, Junaid Abuhamza, know why Khyra and the other children were not fed, but there were many warning signs that something was seriously amiss in the months beforehand.

Khyra had been withdrawn from school by Gordon, who was said to be educating the child at home. Her emaciated body had 60 injuries, the outcome of a sadistic regime which included punishment beatings, cold baths and being forced to overeat until she was sick.

A neighbour believed Khyra scavenged stale bread she left out for the birds.

Gordon claimed Khyra was adequately fed. However, this assertion was part of an elaborate lie designed to convince the authorities that nothing was amiss.

In January 2000, Suraj Ahmed, a doctor at Birmingham city hospital, examined a seven-year-old boy who lived at the house after teachers expressed concern about his welfare. "He was searching cupboards looking for food as soon as he got into school," Ahmed said. "At lunchtime, he would grab food from other children's plates and eat it, and that was a cause of concern for the school staff." His weight was below average.

Ahmed pointed out to Gordon that the child was not getting enough calories and suggested a dietician was consulted, but she rejected this advice and said she did not want the school feeding him any snacks without her permission.

During a brief stay in hospital, the boy would constantly approach people and ask them for food.

A 12-year-old girl who also lived at the house recalled the regime. "Khyra stole bread from the kitchen or something from the cooker," she said. "Junaid told her 'you've won a prize, you've got a nice treat'. He gave her a jar of chocolate and told her to eat it all. It made her feel really ill and it made her vomit."

Another child recalled Khyra being asleep in her mother's lap two days before her death. Gordon was spraying her daughter's face with water, but she did not wake. In the days leading up to her death, he said, he could see the bones through her skin as she slept. The children, he said, took lessons in the lounge and were punished if they did not answer correctly.

Screams and cries of "let me out" had reportedly been heard coming from the house. One neighbour said she saw Khyra whimpering in the back garden before her death, dressed just in her underwear.

A forensic pathologist who carried out a postmortem examination on the seven-year-old found 60 marks, 34 of which could have happened in the week before her death. Eight were consistent with being struck by a cane.

Roger Malcolmson, the doctor who examined Khyra's body, said he had never seen such a high fat loss. "It was shocking, in fact, to see her for the first time." He described how the joints of her elbows were particularly prominent and her face was sunken. There was little skin fat and her jawbone was prominent.

Khyra's maternal grandmother, Eartha Gordon, last saw her in January 2008. She said Gordon had used a variety of excuses to avoid contact. "She would say one of the children was sick or had the flu. One time she said they were decorating – that the place was in a mess and it was not suitable for anyone to come around."

She said she met Khyra's stepfather, Abuhamza, once but was unaware he was living in the house.

Abuhamza himself had "lived in a harsh and punitive environment" as a child, Birmingham crown court had heard earlier. He said his father beat his three-year-old sister to death for failing to flush the toilet. He was punished by being deprived of meals and several times was caught stealing food at school.

The court ruling told of his "strong belief" in evil spirits. It described Gordon as feisty and outspoken but often "highly dependent upon the men in her life". At one point she took up a "healthy eating" diet. "Food was an issue for her and she seemed unable to understand that whilst it may well have been appropriate for her to lose weight, it was certainly not appropriate for these growing children to do the same," said the ruling.

Food was intimately connected to behaviour in the home and Khyra told a teacher "of getting nice porridge if she is good and horrible porridge if she is bad".

Detective Inspector Sean Russell, who investigated Khyra's starvation, said the harrowing nature of her death had made the most hardened officers cry. He believed the little girl had been kept a prisoner in a bedroom. "The very people who should have been looking after Khyra, her mother and Junaid Abuhamza, killed her through systematic abuse."

Khyra, the officer noted, had suffered beatings and been starved while isolated from other ­children for whom her mother was also responsible. "The defendants created a situation in which the children, who were being educated at home, had been kept away from their extended family, friends and the outside world. They were also prevented from doing the things that an ordinary child does. Khyra's untimely death was ultimately caused by an overwhelming infection brought on by severe malnutrition – a cause of death you don't expect to see in the western world, let alone Birmingham, in the 21st century."

Other social services scandals

The London borough of Haringey has been at the centre of two scandals. Victoria Climbié, eight, died in 2000 after her parents in Ivory Coast entrusted her to a great-aunt, Marie Thérèse Kouao, who brought her to Europe. Victoria was tortured to death by Kouao and her boyfriend. Police, doctors and social workers all had contact with her while she was being abused.

In 2007, Haringey again fell under the spotlight with the death of Baby Peter. The 17-month-old infant suffered 50 injuries despite receiving 60 visits from social workers, doctors and police in the final eight months of his life. His mother, Tracey Connelly, her boyfriend, Steven Barker, and his brother, Jason Owen, were jailed.

In January Doncaster council was criticised after the full horror emerged of how two brothers inflicted a 90-minute long torture ordeal on two young boys. A review concluded that the incident was preventable.

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