A mother who abused, tortured and killed her eight-year-old daughter while under the spell of her sadistic lesbian lover faces years behind bars when she is sentenced later.
Polly Chowdhury, 35, and Kiki Muddar, 43, were both convicted the manslaughter of Chowdhury’s daughter, Ayesha Ali, who died at their home in Chadwell Heath, east London, in August 2013.
Their Old Bailey trial had heard how Muddar created a fantasy world of alter egos on Facebook and text message through which she seduced Chowdhury and turned her against her daughter because she saw her as a threat.
She told Chowdhury, a solicitors’ admin worker, that Ayesha was “evil” and had “bad blood”, and repeatedly encouraged her to discipline the child.
Muddar bombarded her with more than 40,000 texts, telling her: “You have no right to ever love or like your evil daughter.”
In a recorded phone conversation with a friend the month before the killing, Muddar described Ayesha as “pure evil” and a “witch” and threatened to drown her in the bath.
Days before the killing, the couple, who were both horror film fans, terrorised Ayesha in the night by taking it in turns to wear a scary mask.
A neighbour heard the little girl screaming, sobbing and then pleading with her mother: “Amah, I don’t want to be bad, Amah, Amah, I don’t want to be bad.”
They also made her write a list of things she had done wrong, which included “huffing and puffing”, “telling lies” and “being rude”.
The abuse came to a head on August 28 2013 when Ayesha was killed. Chowdhury told the court that Ayesha was hurt while Muddar was giving her a cold bath as punishment for wetting herself.
However, Muddar’s defence was that she spent the night at her parents’ house, although a pathologist said she could have died hours before.
On the morning of August 29, Muddar returned home and dialled 999 to report Chowdhury had tried to kill herself and that Ayesha was dead.
Paramedics discovered the child “cold and stiff” in her bedroom, dressed only in a pair of pink pants. Although the cause of her death was a head injury, she had suffered more than 40 injuries, including a bite mark and carpet burns.
Chowdhury had left a series of notes, appearing to admit to the killing, saying: “I have taken my life and Ayesha’s life”.
Meanwhile, Muddar reacted dismissively when she told a paramedic: “She was a naughty child and mum thought she was possessed by the devil.”
During the course of the investigation, police uncovered Muddar’s web of deceit and lies when the recovered her recorded phone calls, text messages and Facebook messages.
Among her fake personas was Chowdhury’s cyber boyfriend Jimmy who she pretended she was channelling when the couple had sex, and a Muslim spirit guide, Skyman, which she used to prey on Muslim Chowdhury’s religious belief in ghosts and messages from beyond the grave.
Muddar, of Green Lane, Ilford, and Chowdhury, of Broomfield Road, Chadwell Heath, both denied murder, manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of a child between March 1 and August 29 2013.
A jury cleared the couple of murder but convicted them both of manslaughter on Wednesday after deliberating for more than 31 hours.
After the verdict, Ayesha’s father Afsar Ali, 35, said: “Over the last few weeks I sat in the courtroom as the truth unfolded.
“It was not the truth about my princess Ayesha, it was the truth about what they did to my little girl, how they tortured her and took away her life.
Ayesha was an amazing little girl – loving, caring, intelligent and always smiling. She was helpful and considerate to everyone she met. She was a gift of love. I knew that the very moment she came into my world. Nothing will bring Ayesha back.”
He said he could not forgive his former wife Chowdhury because of the responsibility she had to protect their child.
Polly will be sentenced later today.
