No supporting evidence in Maya case: Lawyer

The lawyer of the stepmother accused of causing the death of 4-year-old Maya, based his defence on lack of supporting evidence of the crime and social presumption associated with a cruel stepmother against a child from the husband’s previous marriage.
 
The Dubai Prosecution referred to the court, OY, 24, Jordanian housewife on accusation of assault and causing the death of her husband’s little daughter. However, the prosecution failed to support the accusation with evidences, the lawyer told the jury presided by Judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi.
 
“All were driven by a social norm associated with stepmothers that assault and hate her husband’s children from another marriage. Investigations were incomplete in regard of the assumed hatred and assaults. None of the witnesses did testify that my client used to beat her husband’s children who had been in her custody for seven months. This includes the children’s mother who testified that she used to meet her children and spend time with them sometimes twice a week. Should the accused beat the children and the victim, the children would have told their mother. The mother would have noticed traces of the assaults on their bodies of on the victim’s body in particular,” he argued.
 
The children did freely communicate with their close ones including their mother and father and the school and neighbours.
 
If they were subject to physical assault, this would have been manifested physically and psychologically.
 
The mother did not notice any assault traces on Maya’s body. As well, her teacher did not notice any bruises of the so-claimed stepmother assaults. On the contrary the teacher testified that Maya was a student with good performance and behavior.
 
The two maids did not see the stepmother beat the children and if there were any incident said the maids, it was disciplinary such as slaps on the hand. Such a punishment that anyone may practice against his children cannot cause death and does not leave trace even.
 
Hearing the victim’s cries while was in the bathroom with her stepmother, does not tell that the accused was beating her. However, the elder sister testified that she ‘thinks’ that her stepmother beats her sister in the bathroom. This cannot be considered a clear-cut evidence against the accused, defenced the lawyer.
 
“Your honour, the accusation was not proved and I defend with its invalidity.
 
The lawyer also defended with non-completion of the medical and forensic reports.
 
“The reports are based on unproved assumptions related to stepmother’s hatred and brutality against her husband’s children. The reports did not investigate a probability of wrong first aid that could have led to the girl’s death. The victim’s mother was attending when the girl passed away... she could have influenced the police that her husband’s new wife had assaulted and killed her daughter, argued the lawyer and so forensic doctor did not consider and investigate any other probable cause other than assault,” defended the lawyer.
 
In addition to that, the accused had denied the accusation all through the judicial procedures.
 
Closing his defence, the lawyer asked the jury for the acquittal of his client as an initial request and to re-investigate the case with the treating hospital via a medical committee that includes a first aid doctor.
 
The court adjourned the case for verdict until July 16.

PREVIOUS HEARINGS
 
In a previous hearing, the dentist neighbour who was first to check on the 4-year-old Maya, who was allegedly killed by her step mother, told the Dubai Criminal Court that the fall from the bicycle could not have led to hear death.
 
GM, 47, a Syrian dentist was rushed to the house to check on the little girl after falling from her old bicycle.
 
“The girl was sitting on a sofa, she had a disturbed consciousness. Checking on her, I noticed a minor bruise in the girl’s head... there was no fracture in the skull. However, the girl’s skin was yellow, and her lips were blue... she was very cold and going unconscious for some minutes... her iris was not responding to light.
 
The change of her colour and coldness prove that the girl had internal bleeding that could not be of the head injury. Her situation could not be sustained from falling from a cycle. I asked the family to rush the girl to a hospital,” testified the neighbour.
 
I went with the family to the hospital and a pediatric doctor provided her with first aid animation. He pressed on her chest for a couple of times before giving her oxygen.
 
The dentist refuted that the animation provided at the hospital could have caused the little girl injuries and internal bleeding in the belly as the lawyer is trying to defend.
 
The jury listened again to the forensic doctor who responded to a report made by a medical committee. The forensic doctor insisted that the internal bleeding could alone have caused the girl’s death.
 
“Having 500mlg of blood in her belly is not a minimal amount... she could have continued bleeding until she dies... however, the head injuries that caused brain oedema (swelling) had expedite her death because it negatively affected the functioning of vital organs. In addition to that, the girl sustained injuries at different sides of the brain that could not have caused by one fall from the bicycle,” assured the forensic doctor.
 
The husband of the accused RM, 38, bank employee,testified that the emergency doctor had pressed with his fingers on his daughter’s belly while his palms were around her back.
 
“Maya had a very tiny body ... the doctor have put his two palms around her back and with his thumbs pressed on her belly... this could have caused her injuries in her belly,” said the father defending his 24-year-old second wife that his children from his divorced wife were in custody.
 
His wife, OY, was with the children for about seven months before the incident.
 
Answering if she was beating his children or the victim, the father said that he did notice anything like that.
 
“My daughter did never complain from my wife,” said the father told the jury.
 
The court will reconvene on July 9 for defence.
 
THE RECORDS
 
A 24-year-old Jordanian housewife allegedly assaulted her four-year-old step daughter to death. The girl sustained head and stomach injuries and her death was caused due to internal bleeding in both her head and belly.
 
According to the records, the little girl, Maya, and her siblings were in their father's custody following their parents' divorce. The mother AJ, 36, is also a Jordanian and a nurse by profession.
 
On January 30, AJ received a call from her ex-husband asking her to arrive at the emergency department of NMC hospital where he had rushed their daughter who was in a bad condition after falling down.
 
“By the time I arrived to the hospital, my daughter had already died. When I asked about the reason of her death I was told that she had fallen from the cycle,” the mother told investigators.
 
However, the mother was not convinced with the cause and pointed at her ex-husband's wife and accused the woman of ill-treating her children, especially the youngest one, the deceased.
 
“I also noticed traces of assault in different parts of my daughter’s body,” the mother told investigators.
 
Earlier, on the day when the incident took place, the neighbour, GM, 47, a Syrian dentist was rushed to the house to check on the little girl who was unconscious.
 
“I noticed a minor bruise in the girl’s head... there was no fracture in the skull. However, the girl’s skin was yellow, and her lips were blue... she was very cold and unconscious... her iris was not responding to light. These symptoms prove that the girl was subject to injuries other than the one on the head. These injuries could not be sustained from falling from a cycle. I asked the family to rush the girl to a hospital,” testified the neighbour.
 
The stepmother called her husband and asked for his permission to rush his daughter to the hospital.
 
The family’s Ethiopian maid, ST,28, told investigators that she had been working for the family for two months and on the day of the accident, her employer asked her for the first time of her service to prepare food.
 
The accused took the three children to her room and accompanied the youngest to give her a bath, said the maid.
 
“I could hear the little girl crying badly... I think she was beating her. My employer treats children differently in front of their father. For the first time I also saw my employer watching the children playing. After I finished preparing food, I excused myself to take my off day according to the agreement,” the maid told investigators.
 
The other maid, IS, 24, also an Ethiopian told investigators that she had worked for the family for about four years-and-a-half when the children's mother was in the house.
 
IS, worked for only two months after the arrival of the father’s new wife.
 
“When the accused came to the family, I noticed that she was cruel to the children. She used to beat and bite them for trivial reasons.  She also used to make them eat on the floor in the absence of their father. She used to over feed the little one until she would vomit and then force her to eat what she had vomited. She also used to mention that she hates the little one because she looks like her mother and because she was the nearest to her father’s heart."
 
The elder girl ‘Raneem’ told the maid that their stepmother used to lock them in the room and beat and bite them, especially Maya.
 
“She asked me to tell their father about the ill-treatment of their stepmother... I told her that I cannot do that as their father was always in disputes with her,” the maid told investigators.
 
 Because her step-children liked me, she separated me from them.
 
“She did that to take revenge without any supervision,” the family’s former maid told the police.
 
The victim’s 10-year-old elder sister, Raneem, told investigators that on the day of the incident she was playing with her other sister Rand and her friend Samar in the building’s corridor in front of their flat.
 
“After a while, my stepmother came and put my little sister, Maya on an old and out of work big cycle. This was the first time she had done this. All of a sudden, my sister fell on the back... her head did not hit the wall that was in front.  My stepmother could have held her, but she did not... she took her in and put some ice on her head. After about half-an-hour, my sister lost consciousness and her face colour changed and she closed her eyes,” the victim’s sister told investigators.
 
She also said that the stepmother asked the girl to request their neighbour, the dentist, to check the girl.
 
“The neighbour came and after checking my sister he asked her to rush her to the nearest hospital,” said Raneem who also told investigators.
 
“She used to take my little sister to the bathroom claiming to give her a bath and then she used to beat and bite her. I used to hear her crying and after she would come out, I used to notice assault traces on her body,” said Raneem.
 
FORENSIC EVIDENCE
 
The forensic report stated the girl’s death was not a natural death.
 
It reported that the cause of death were injuries in the belly, the back and the head that led to massive internal bleeding.
 
In addition to that, the swelling in the brain expedited the death.
 
The victim was beaten by hands, legs, and a hard tool. The injuries could not have resulted from head injuries sustained during a fall from a cycle as the accused reported.
 
There were numerous injuries on the victim’s head - in the forehead, back head and the right side of the head.
 
The injuries and bruises on the body also could not have resulted from one fall from a cycle.
 
The report also mentioned nail scratches in the victim’s ear, shoulder and neck. There were also traces of teeth marks on her arm.
 
Forensic reported that the victim had been subject to brutal physical assault, which led to her death.
 
After taking necessary laboratory examinations, forensic investigators concluded that the victim was most likely bitten by the accused.
 
The stepmother denied the accusations when she first appeared before the court.
 
 

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