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Banned
A boy in the care of a couple accused of starving a girl to death was seen trying to eat toy sandwiches in a hospital play area, a jury was told.
Angela Gordon and Junaid Abuhamza, both from Handsworth, Birmingham, deny murdering seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq.
The boy, aged eight, described as being extremely thin, "begged" for food on a hospital ward on the day Khyra died, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
He was in the couple's care at the time they are accused of murdering Khyra.
'Some more'
The eight-year-old boy cannot be named for legal reasons.
In a statement read to the court by prosecution QC Timothy Raggatt, Det Con Victoria Lee said she met the boy and four other children, who were also in the defendants' care, at Birmingham's City Hospital.
The child abuse investigation officer said in her statement: "He was stopping every adult on the ward, begging for food.
"He told me he had eaten toast and cereal that morning but he was desperate for some more."
The boy started to make sandwiches from plastic children's food in a play area and tried to eat them, the court heard.
Ms Lee said: "I had to tell him not to and take it away from him."
The court heard that the five children being cared for at the hospital were then given sandwiches and that one of them had "concealed" two of them under her arm.
'Very frail'
The five children were initially taken to Birmingham's Thornhill Road police station after Khyra was found dead at her home in Leyton Road, Handsworth.
In a statement made by Sgt Russell Tringham which was read to the court, the police officer described seeing the children in a kitchen area of a rest room at Thornhill Road.
He said: "They were all extremely thin in the face and the body, and looked very frail.
"(One of the boys) kept asking me over and over 'Can we have some more breakfast? Can we have some cereal?'."
Mr Abuhamza, 30, of Leyton Road, pleaded guilty at the start of the trial to cruelty charges relating to five children in his care and control.
Ms Gordon, 34, also of Leyton Road, denies the charges of child cruelty, which are alleged to have been committed between December 2007 and May 17 2008.
The case continues.
Source: news.bbc.co.uk
Angela Gordon and Junaid Abuhamza, both from Handsworth, Birmingham, deny murdering seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq.
The boy, aged eight, described as being extremely thin, "begged" for food on a hospital ward on the day Khyra died, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
He was in the couple's care at the time they are accused of murdering Khyra.
'Some more'
The eight-year-old boy cannot be named for legal reasons.
In a statement read to the court by prosecution QC Timothy Raggatt, Det Con Victoria Lee said she met the boy and four other children, who were also in the defendants' care, at Birmingham's City Hospital.
The child abuse investigation officer said in her statement: "He was stopping every adult on the ward, begging for food.
"He told me he had eaten toast and cereal that morning but he was desperate for some more."
The boy started to make sandwiches from plastic children's food in a play area and tried to eat them, the court heard.
Ms Lee said: "I had to tell him not to and take it away from him."
The court heard that the five children being cared for at the hospital were then given sandwiches and that one of them had "concealed" two of them under her arm.
'Very frail'
The five children were initially taken to Birmingham's Thornhill Road police station after Khyra was found dead at her home in Leyton Road, Handsworth.
In a statement made by Sgt Russell Tringham which was read to the court, the police officer described seeing the children in a kitchen area of a rest room at Thornhill Road.
He said: "They were all extremely thin in the face and the body, and looked very frail.
"(One of the boys) kept asking me over and over 'Can we have some more breakfast? Can we have some cereal?'."
Mr Abuhamza, 30, of Leyton Road, pleaded guilty at the start of the trial to cruelty charges relating to five children in his care and control.
Ms Gordon, 34, also of Leyton Road, denies the charges of child cruelty, which are alleged to have been committed between December 2007 and May 17 2008.
The case continues.
Source: news.bbc.co.uk
