Mother jailed for starving four-year-old Hamzah Khan to death

An alcoholic mother of eight who starved her four-year-old son to death and left his body in a cot for nearly two years has been jailed for 15 years.

Amanda Hutton, 43, was found guilty of the manslaughter of Hamzah Khan at Bradford Crown Court on Thursday.

Hamzah’s body was found in squalor at Hutton’s home in Bradford in September 2011. Hutton admitted neglecting five of her other children aged between five and 13, who were living in the terrible conditions.

Her eldest son Tariq Khan, 24, was given a two-year suspended sentence forpreventing the burial of his younger brother. Hutton showed no emotion as she was led from the dock.

Judge Roger Thomas QC told her: “The details of your wicked conduct have been displayed in such awful detail over the past three weeks in the trial that concluded yesterday.”

He said the offences “demonstrate a most fundamental and serious breach of any duty that an individual in decent society can owe to others – namely the duty that a parent owes to her or his young children to take proper care of them”.

The judge said the children were found in a situation that was “breathtakingly awful”.