East Ham mother who shook baby to death jailed for nine years

An east London mother has been jailed for nine and a half years for killing her three-month-old daughter.

Kaylani Kalanzi, who was under a social services child protection plan, died after sustaining catastrophic brain injuries, a broken leg and broken ribs in July 2024, having been violently shaken.

The Old Bailey trial heard that her parents, Nazli Merthoca and Herbert Kalanzi called emergency services, saying Kaylani had stopped breathing but when paramedics arrived to their home in East Ham, her mother Nazli Merthoca, did not tell them that Kaylani had been shaken.

Merthoca, 24, was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter.

Her baby was suffering from bleeding to the brain, damage to her eyes and fractures to her tibia and ribs. She died some days later from her brain injuries.

Staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital noted how Nazli Merthoca became upset at being questioned about what happened, and claimed she was being blamed because of her race and gender.

At the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Abigail Husbands told the court that Merthoca had lost her temper after an accumulation of factors.

She “despised the social workers” and sought to challenge them throughout their involvement. There was evidence that she had been using cannabis at the time of her arrest.

But Merthoca’s defence counsel Benjamin Aina KC described how she had entered the care system when she was 12, had been abused by older men, and had relied on cannabis and alcohol as a form of relief.

He told the court how a psychologist’s report indicated she “has been an angry person due to all the childhood and bad experiences that she has been through”.

“She really wanted to be a good mother,” he said and “the death of Kaylani has been an unbearable blow to her”.

Sentencing, Judge Mark Lucraft KC described Kaylani’s death as “the loss of a precious life” which would be felt by many.

“You will have to live with the fact that you killed your own daughter.”

But he had to take her history of mental problems, her age, and her personal circumstances.

Merthoca was told she would serve two thirds of her sentence and then be released on licence.

Her partner Herbert Kalanzi, 35, was acquitted of murder, causing or allowing Kaylani’s death and failing in his duty to protect her.

The parents both denied wrongdoing and neither gave evidence.