Mum jailed after admitting shaking her two-year-old daughter to death

A mother has been jailed for killing her two-year-old daughter after lying that she had choked on a biscuit.

Morsal Mohammed Naim, 32, was jailed at Manchester Crown Court for nine years after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Omra, during the early stages of her trial last month.

Naim and the child’s father, Firooz Wali Jan, had previously pleaded guilty to child cruelty in relation to injuries to the child’s hand and neck inflicted with a lighter and an injury to the child’s arm.

Firooz Wali Jan, 32, was sentenced to six years and nine months for child cruelty.

Alan Richardson of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Morsal Mohammed Naim not only shook her daughter to death, but then lied about what she had done.

“As her mother, Naim should have cared for two-year old Omra Wali Jan, and kept her safe. Instead, she inflicted the catastrophic injuries that caused Omra’s death. It is a killing almost impossible to comprehend in its cruelty and sheer senselessness.

“The Crown Prosecution Service worked with Greater Manchester Police to build a strong case to put before the court, including witness testimony, phone downloads, expert reports and medical evidence. The strength of the evidence led Naim to admit causing her daughter’s death in the early stages of the trial.

“Our thoughts are of Omra – whose young life was cut mercilessly short – and all those affected by her untimely death.”

Building the case

To prosecute manslaughter, the Crown Prosecution Service must be satisfied that there was an unlawful act, in this case the violent shaking of Omra, which all sober and reasonable people would inevitably realise must subject the victim to at least some risk of harm, and that there is sufficient evidence that the defendant’s actions caused the death.

At around 6.40pm, on 30 November 2023, a call was made by a family member to the emergency services reporting that Omra, who had been home with her mother Naim, had choked and wasn’t breathing.

Paramedics arrived three minutes later but it took seven minutes for the door to be opened. Once inside, they found Omra in cardiac arrest and unconscious. They made attempts to stabilise her before she was taken to Manchester Children’s Hospital.

Paramedics didn’t find any signs of choking or anything in Omra’s airway.

At the hospital, CT and MRI scans confirmed that Omra had suffered a devastating brain injury with multiple haemorrhages to her right eye and a healing rib fracture.

Sadly, Omra never regained consciousness and died at 6.48pm on 9 February 2024. Two paediatric pathologists determined that Omra had died as a result of head injuries.

In Naim’s first account given to an officer at her home on 30 November 2023, she said she had been at home when Omra, who had been eating a biscuit, made a choking sound and suddenly fell down.

The following day, she told hospital staff a similar story but said that the two-year-old had choked and fell, banging her head on the baby walker.

When Naim was interviewed by the police on 7 and 8 December 2023, she gave a contrasting account and said Omra had been spinning around before the biscuit got stuck and she fell on the baby walker. She also mentioned that Omra had fallen down the stairs two weeks before and confirmed that no medical attention had been sought.

In relation to the bruises and burn injuries, Naim suggested that they may have been from before Omra came to England in September 2023, or by playing with other children. She later said Omra would sometimes shake her head and hit the wall.

On 29 December, Naim told a consultant paediatrician that when Omra choked, she shook her in an attempt to dislodge the biscuit.

Although Naim claimed in her various accounts that she had not inflicted the fatal injuries on her young daughter, the evidence from several experts was clear, the injuries could not have been caused by Omra choking or banging her head on the baby walker. It was more likely that she was violently shaken, resulting in a head trauma.

During the trial at Manchester Crown Court in January 2026, Naim accepted for the first time that she had inflicted the injuries on her daughter and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.