Parents who caused death of buried boy jailed

A couple whose severely malnourished son's body was found buried in the garden of their former home have been jailed.

Three-year-old Abiyah's body was found behind a house in Birmingham, nine months after Tai and Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah's, 42 and 43, had been evicted from the property.

Last week, the pair were were found guilty of causing the death of Abiyah, whose body was found at the house in Clarence Road, Handsworth.

Tai Yasharahyalah was jailed for 24-and-a-half years and Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah was given 19-and-a-half years at Coventry Crown Court on Thursday.

During an eight-week trial, the court heard that the couple lived off grid and created their own bespoke belief system based on a mixture of elements that drew from New Age mysticism and West African religion.

After the death of Abiyah, they kept his body inside their home for eight days, before embalming the body using frankincense and myrrh prior to a ritualistic burial in their garden.

Sentencing, Mr Justice Wall their son died "as a result of your wilful neglect of him."

He said the three-year-old had a "catalogue of injury and disease" at the time of his death.

The couple heard that the judge believed they both realised how unwell their son was prior to his death.

"I am sure that each of you played a part in starving him and failing to get medical care for him when the need for it was obvious to you," he said.

"When Abiyah died you did not call an ambulance or seek any medical assistance in the hope that his life could be saved.

"Instead you took his body into the back garden and there buried it."

During the sentencing hearing, the court heard that Tai Yasharahyalah had been attacked twice in the week since he was imprisoned after being found guilty, including an assault in a holding cell while on his way to Thursday's hearing.

During the trial, jurors were told the couple were evicted from their Birmingham home in March 2022 before police found their son's body in December that year.

After he was exhumed, Abiyah was found to have been in a severely malnourished state and suffered from a list of other health problems at the time of his death.

These included bone fractures, rickets, anaemia, stunted growth and severe dental decay.

Post-mortem tests failed to ascertain the cause of Abiyah's death, but experts were able to say that if the three-year-old died from a respiratory illness, as described by his parents, the effects of malnutrition would have been a "more than minimal" cause of his death.

Both parents had denied neglect, causing or allowing the death of a child and perverting the course of justice.

During the trial, the court heard that Tai Yasharahyalah had styled himself as the head of a fictional country for which the couple made their own passports.

The couple claimed to have renounced their citizenship and he was called "King" by his wife and her family for a period of time.

Tai Yasharahyalah, a former medical genetics student before quitting the field, invented his own laws, and claimed to have established his own kingdom.

Their beliefs saw them eat a restrictive vegan diet, which saw all members of the family fall into a state of malnutrition.

Mr Justice Wall said the couple cared more about their beliefs than the welfare of their child.

"Your motivation for acting as you did was your prioritisation of your distorted system of beliefs over their welfare," he said.

"You were prepared to live with any consequences which flowed from your adherence to these beliefs, including the disability or death of the children."