Mother jailed for nine and a half years after killing baby daughter
Three-month-old Kaylani Kalanzi died in July 2024 after she was admitted to hospital having been violently shaken.
A mother has been jailed for nine and a half years after killing her three-month-old daughter.
Kaylani Kalanzi was on the radar of social services even before she was born and placed on a child protection plan, the Old Bailey was told.
On July 8 2024 she was admitted to hospital having been violently shaken, with an impact to her head.
She suffered catastrophic brain injuries as well as a broken leg and ribs, and died in hospital 15 days later.
Her mother, Nazli Merthoca, faced trial over her death and in October a jury cleared her of murder but found her guilty of the lesser alternative charge of manslaughter.
Prosecutor Zoe Johnson KC said the 24-year-old “lost her temper with the baby after an accumulation of factors” and also “challenged” social workers instead of accepting their help.
Jailing her for nine years and six months on Monday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC called the death of the baby a “loss of a precious life”.
“The impact of the death of Kaylani will be felt by many,” he told Merthoca.
“You will have to live with the knowledge that you killed your daughter.”
Benjamin Aina KC, defending, told the Old Bailey that his client had faced “a number of significant challenges” in her life, including suffering physical abuse as a child and entering the care system when she was 12 years old where she started being “groomed by older men” and relying on cannabis and alcohol.
He also told of her “grief” over Kaylani.
Merthoca’s partner, Herbert Kalanzi, 35, had also been on trial, accused of causing or allowing Kaylani’s death, but was cleared by jurors.
He had been formally acquitted of her murder on the directions of the judge.
The two, from East Ham, east London, did not give evidence at their trial.
During the trial, Ms Johnson told jurors that Merthoca was in a “mutually abusive relationship” with Mr Kalanzi.
Kaylani had been born prematurely and spent 29 days in the special care baby unit at North Middlesex Hospital before being allowed home on May 13 2024.
Social services were involved with the family and allowed the defendants custody of Kaylani after they demonstrated they were fit parents, jurors heard.
Mr Kalanzi had agreed to attend Caring Dad, a programme aimed at engaging fathers to enhance the safety and wellbeing of their children.
But the prosecution asserted the defendants’ relationship was so damaged that the social services strategy was “doomed to fail”.
Ms Johnson told jurors that on July 8 2024 the “ever-present risk” to Kaylani became a “fatal reality”.
Shortly before 10.30pm, the defendants called emergency services from Merthoca’s grandmother’s flat in Homerton, east London, where the family was staying at the time, saying Kaylani had stopped breathing.
When paramedics arrived, Merthoca failed to inform them that Kaylani had been shaken, causing bleeding to the brain, damage to her eyes and fractures to her tibia and ribs, the court was told.
Staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital noted Merthoca had become upset at being questioned about what happened, and had claimed she was being blamed because of her “race and gender”.
