A three-month-old baby was killed after being caught in the middle of her parents’ toxic relationship despite coming to the attention of social services, a court has heard. Kaylani Kalanzi was on a child protection plan when she was admitted to hospital on July 8 last year having been violently shaken with an impact to her head, jurors were told.
She suffered catastrophic brain injuries as well as a broken leg and ribs, and died in hospital 15 days later. Kaylani’s parents Herbert Kalanzi, 35, and Nazli Merthoca, 24, from East Ham, East London, are accused of murder and causing or allowing her death.
Opening their Old Bailey trial on Tuesday, prosecutor Zoe Johnson KC said the defendants were in a “mutually abusive relationship” with Merthoca consuming drugs. As a result, Kaylani was vulnerable to her parents’ inability to put her first and protect her from harm, jurors were told.
“Each defendant knew that the other one posed a real risk to the children,” Ms Johnson said. As their relationship “spiralled out of control”, Kaylani was “caught up in the middle of it”, the prosecutor told jurors.
Three weeks before her death, Kaylani suffered an injury to her right eye, which Merthoca blamed Kalanzi for, but later changed her account when she spoke to medics, the court was told. Kalanzi always denied being responsible for the injury, claiming it was an accident.
Ms Johnson said: “In itself the eye injury was minor but it is a graphic example of the defendants’ inability to care properly for Kaylani and their failure to take action to protect her from harm and remove her from danger.
“On 8 July 2024 the ever-present risk to Kaylani became a fatal reality.” That evening, the defendants were both responsible for their daughter’s care, although their accounts of who was looking after her differ, jurors heard.
The jury was told that the defendants both denied causing Kaylani’s injuries at Merthoca’s grandmother’s flat in Homerton, east London, where the family was staying. Ms Johnson said: “One of them is lying. One of them did it. But only they know who the culprit is.”
Shortly before 10.30pm, the defendants called emergency services saying Kaylani had stopped breathing. When paramedics arrived, the couple failed to say 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.
Ms Johnson told jurors: “Their attempts to protect themselves is, you may think, in stark contrast to their ability to protect Kaylani.” She said medical experts had rejected any suggestion Kaylani’s injuries were caused accidentally.
The prosecutor told jurors the primary issue for them to consider would be who was responsible for shaking Kaylani. She said: “As there are no witnesses to what happened in that bedroom in the very short time it took to shake Kaylani, at this stage the prosecution cannot point to one or other of the defendants and say ‘you did it’.”
However, she suggested the parent responsible for murdering Kaylani would emerge once all the evidence had been heard. The defendants have denied the charges against them.
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