DUBAI // A stepmother beat her husband's daughter so severely that the four-year-old suffered internal bleeding and died, a court was told on Wednesday.
Jordanian O?A, 24, claimed at Dubai Criminal Court that little Maya Raja had fallen from her bicycle on January 30, but a neighbour who is a dentist thought the injuries were not consistent with a fall.
Several other witnesses said that the stepmother would regularly beat her husband's three children.
Syrian dentist G?K said: "I was called by the neighbours, who asked me to come and check the child.
"I found she had suffered some bruises on the head but had no fracture to the skull. I could see the child had suffered injuries other than those on the head and I didn't think they were because of the fall.
"Her lips were blue and her skin had turned yellow, her body was very cold, so I asked her stepmother to take her to the nearest hospital."
The stepmother, who denied causing the girl's death, called her husband, R?S, and got his permission to take Maya to a hospital.
The husband then called his ex-wife – Maya's mother – telling her to go to the NMC hospital to see her daughter.
"R?S called me and informed me that my daughter was at the hospital, so I went there and when I arrived, she was already dead," said A?J, 36, who is a nurse.
"They told me she had fallen off her bike but I suspected O?A because my daughters, including Maya, have informed me before that she often beat them, especially Maya."
A police report was filed and O?A was accused of assaulting the child.
The family's Ethiopian maid, 24-year-old E?E, testified that she had worked for them for four years and, ever since O?A joined the family, she had treated her husband's daughters badly.
"She constantly beat them up for the slightest reason and would have them eat on the floor but when the father came, she would not do any of that," the maid said.
"She used to feed Maya large quantities of food and very quickly forcing her to swallow it until the poor kid vomited, then she would force her to eat what she had just vomited."
The maid, who left the family four months after the stepmother arrived in the house, added that O?A hated Maya the most because "she looked very much like her mother and the father loved her the most and had her sleep in his lap often".
"Maya's sister, R, had told me that O?A often bit Maya and when I asked her to inform her father, she was afraid because the couple had many disputes and often fought together," said E?E.
Maya's 10-year-old sister, R?M, told prosecutors that O?A often took her sister to give her a bath but she could hear her Maya's loud screams and then she would see signs of assault on her body.
"On the day of the incident I was playing outside and, for the first time, I saw O?A carrying my sister and she put her on the bike, although it was broken," said the 10-year-old.
"Then Maya fell but her head did not bang the wall and O?A could have prevented the fall but she did not. She then took Maya again inside and put some ice on her head but when her colour changed, O?A asked me to call for a female neighbour, who then called the dentist."
Forensics expert M?A, 28, said a bike fall could not have caused the multiple bruises and injuries the child had, especially those in the abdomen and back.
He also said that the child had several scratches and bruises on her right shoulder, neck and back, as a result of slapping or hitting. Maya also had signs of a pinch on her left ear and bite on the left arm, he said.
"A test on the bite showed possible matching with the defendant's teeth," said the expert.
The court rejected the stepmother's lawyer's bail request and set the next hearing for June 18.
salamir@thenational.ae
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