Hamzah Khan death: Amanda Hutton denies neglecting or abusing son whose body was found mummified after 'starving to death'

Mummified remains of four-year-old child were discovered in a cot

Amanda Hutton denied neglecting or abusing son whose body was found mummified after 'starving to death' (PA)

A mother whose mummified son’s body was found in his cot two years after he was allegedly starved to death denied neglecting or abusing the child and claimed she was the victim of two decades of abuse at the hands of the boy’s father.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Hamzah Khan was so undernourished that at the time of his death he could fit into a Baby-gro for a six to nine-month-old - despite being four-and-a-half-years-old.

Amanda Hutton wept as she gave evidence describing how she rushed back from the supermarket after being told Hamzah was critically ill by an older sibling.

She said she tried to give him mouth to mouth resuscitation and cradled his dead body all night after her older son Tariq prevented her calling the police to alert them to the death in December 2009.

Ms Hutton, 43, said she had been in a long-standing violent relationship with the boy’s father Aftab Khan who she met when she was 16 or 17.

Asked why she stayed with him, she said it was "because I loved him." She eventually moved house after Mr Khan attacked her in December 2008, it was claimed.

Ms Hutton, who denies manslaughter, said she had not been worried that her son was struggling to put on weight because his older brother Qaiser, now an adult, had also been very thin.

Hamzah had struggled to breastfeed as a child and continued to have issues around food but his mother believed he would “grow out of it” like his brother, she said.

Paul Greaney QC, prosecuting, showed the jury a photograph of Hamza’s clothing. He asked the defendant: “You had a four-and-a-half-year-old child that fitted into a baby-gro for a six to nine-month-old baby, that hadn't been eating and you didn't seek medical attention for him?”

Ms Hutton denied drinking heavily before Hamzah's death and rejected the prosecution claim that alcohol was more important to her than her son’s welfare.

She said she only began to drink after Hamzah’s death when she continued to claim his child benefit because she was concerned questions would be asked if she stopped.

Ms Hutton also denied locking the child in a room in the dark as a punishment or referring to him as a “silly bastard”.

The prosecutor asked her: "Do you accept he died because he was malnourished?” She shook her head and said: “Without sounding flippant, I'm not an expert. I don't know the cause.” She added: "I don't think he did. I'm not sure.”

Ms Hutton described receiving a call whilst out shopping telling her that Hamzah’s eyes were rolling back into his head. “I rushed upstairs to my bedroom and found Hamzah had passed away.

“I picked him up and checked all his pulse points and there was nothing. I tried to give him mouth-to-mouth but that wasn't working.”

She said: "I picked him up from my bed and put him over my shoulder and brown vomit came out of him, from his mouth.” Asked what she did after Hamzah died she said: “I stayed in my bedroom all night with him. I held him for hours.”

The trial continues.