Woman who killed 4-year old stepdaughter gets 10 years in prison

The Dubai Court of Appeal has upheld the sentence of 10 years in jail awarded by the lower court against a stepmother who tortured her husband’s four-year old daughter to death. 

The court also upheld the deportation sentence against OY, 24, Jordanian housewife, after serving her jail term. 

The lower court had also ordered the stepmother to pay temporary compensation of Dh20,100 for the civil rights case lodged by the victim’s mother in addition to legal fees.

OY wept after hearing the sentence awarded for causing the death of her step daughter, which she had denied.

During hearings of the case, OY’s lawyer asked the court for his client’s acquittal or to appoint a medical committee to investigate the hospital’s emergency practices, suspecting that doctors played a role in the girl’s death.

However, the court turned down the request and pronounced the stepmother guilty of assaulting and causing the death of the little girl Maya. The lawyer had based his defence on social assumptions associated with cruelty of a stepmother against children from her husband’s previous marriage.

Dubai Prosecution referred OY to the court on accusation of assault and causing the death of her husband’s little daughter. However, the Prosecution failed to support the accusation with evidence, 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 their husband’s children from another marriage. Investigations were incomplete with regard to the assumed hatred and assaults. None of the witnesses testified 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 twice a week. If the accused had beaten the children and the victim, the children would have told their mother. The mother would have noticed traces of the assaults on their bodies and on the victim’s body in particular,” he argued.

"The children did freely interact with their mother, father as well as in the school and with neighbours. If they were subjected to physical assault, this would have been reflected physically and psychologically.

"The mother did not notice any assault traces on Maya’s body. Her teacher also did not notice any bruises of the stepmother's assaults. On the contrary, the teacher testified that Maya was a good student and a well-behaved girl.

"The two maids did not see the stepmother beating the children and if there were any incidents, it was disciplinary action such as slaps on the hand. Such punishment cannot cause death and does not even leave any trace.

"Hearing the victim’s cries while she was in the bathroom with her stepmother, does not automatically suggest that the accused was beating her. However, the elder sister testified that she ‘thinks’ that her stepmother beat her sister in the bathroom. This cannot be considered as clear evidence against the accused," the lawyer argued. 

The lawyer also defended with 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 probability of wrong first-aid that could have led to the girl’s death.

"The victim’s mother was there 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. 

He also added that the forensic doctor did not consider and investigate any other probable cause other than assault. Also, the accused had pleaded not guilty all through the judicial procedures.

Closing his defence, the lawyer asked the jury for 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. 

Previous hearing  

The dentist neighbour who was the first medical professional to check on the four-year old Maya told the Dubai Criminal Court that a fall from a bicycle could not have led to her death. GM, 47, Syrian dentist, was rushed to the house to check on the little girl after she fell 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 became unconscious for a few 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 because of the head injury which was very minor. Her condition could not have been caused by 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 paediatric doctor provided her with first aid. He pressed on her chest a couple of times before giving her oxygen,” he testified.

The dentist refuted the defence lawyer’s claim that the aid provided at the hospital could have caused the little girl injuries and internal bleeding in the belly.

The jury listened again to the forensic doctor and his comment on a medical consultation report. The forensic doctor insisted that internal bleeding alone could have caused the girl’s death.

“Having 500ml of blood in her belly is not a minimal amount. She could have continued bleeding until she died. However, the head injuries that caused brain oedema (swelling) had expedited 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 been caused by one fall from the bicycle,” the forensic doctor assured.

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 had put his two palms around her back and with his thumbs pressed on her belly. This could have caused injuries in her belly,” said the father, defending his 24-year old second wife.

His second wife OY had been at home with the children for about seven months before the incident. Responding to queries about beating the children or the victim, the father said that he had not noticed anything like that. “My daughter never complained about my wife,” the father told the jury.
 

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