Boy, 3, starved and buried by his parents became 'invisible' to child services, review finds

A three-year-old boy who was starved and buried in a garden by his parents became "invisible" to child services, a review has found.

Abiyah Yasharahyalah died in 2020 from a respiratory illness, worsened by severe malnourishment, rickets, anaemia and stunted growth caused by a "restricted" vegan diet. A review of his family's contact with authorities concluded that there was a lack of curiosity about how his parents' culture and lifestyle might have impacted the toddler's wellbeing.

Parents Tai and Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah were jailed for 24 and a half years and 19 and a half years, respectively, in December after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice, causing or allowing the death of a child, and child neglect. A judge said they had both "played a part in starving" Abiyah when it would have been obvious he needed medical care.

Tai and Naiyahmi, aged 42 and 43, shunned mainstream society and left their son's body buried at their property in Handsworth, Birmingham, when they were evicted in March 2022, Coventry Crown Court heard. Abiyah's body was only found in December 2022, five days after his parents were arrested.

London-born Tai, a medical genetics graduate who also used the first name Tai-Zamarai, and former shop worker Naiyahmi had "invented" a belief system featuring aspects of Igbo culture that Tai, who grew up in both Nigeria and Peckham in London, adapted to form a legal system he called "slick law". Their trial heard they lived off donations, at one point occupying a shipping container and at another a caravan in Glastonbury, Somerset.

'Invisible and lost from professional view' A review by Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership found that Abiyah "was only ever seen by a small number of professionals during his lifetime, and for a limited time only". "Parental resistance of advice, support or authority ultimately resulted in (Abiyah) becoming invisible and lost from professional view," the report, published on Wednesday, stated.

Health records show that Abiyah was seen by a health visitor in April 2026 shortly after he was born and again that May for a check-up. This was followed by some contact with a local authority social worker in London in 2018, as well as four visits to a children's centre in Birmingham, but "records of these contacts and interactions are very limited, reinforcing that there was very little insight into (Abiyah's) existence, health of welfare".

Police visited the Clarence Road property in Handsworth where Abiyah lived with his family in 2018 when he was alive, but "no details were recorded" about the boy, with his presence "almost invisible on review of records.