Father of a four-year-old boy whose mummified body was found in his mother’s house alerted police, court hears

The father of a four-year-old boy whose mummified body was found in his mother’s house urged police to check on the child a year before his death, a court heard today.

Hamzah Khan’s body was found in a travel cot in his mother Amanda Hutton’s bedroom in September 2011. He had died 21 months earlier, in December 2009.

Today, at the third day of Ms Hutton’s manslaughter trial, the jury was read a police interview conducted with the boy’s father, Aftab Khan, in 2008, when he had been arrested for hitting Ms Hutton.

Judge Roger Thomas QC warned the jury at Bradford Crown Court to bear in mind the interview took place as Mr Khan was under suspicion of an assault – an offence to which he later pleaded guilty. In the interview Mr Khan claimed Hamzah was undernourished and neglected.

He said: “Believe me, I’m going to get in touch with them [social services] because it’s gone so far now.”

Mr Khan told the officers he wanted to take Hamzah to a doctor but Ms Hutton wouldn’t let him.

He added: “You’ve got to keep an eye on that woman. All I want you to do is get a doctor to check Hamzah, check how undernourished he is, check how neglected he is, see how he is.”

Detective Inspector Ian Lawrie of West Yorkshire Police said officers did go to the house following the interview with Mr Khan, but there was no record of any referral to social services. He also confirmed police had been called to the house on eight separate occasions in the two-and-a-half years up to 2008.

The court heard evidence from Hamzah’s brother, Qaiser Khan, 22, who said he saw the little boy eating the contents of his own nappy and sleeping in a buggy that stank of urine.

The prosecution told the court that Ms Hutton starved her son to death. She denies manslaughter. The trial continues.