A father from east London has been jailed for murdering his 13-week-old son whose death he tried blaming on a autistic child.
Mohammed Miah, 37, of Poplar, east London, was jailed for 18 years after he was found guilty of murder and causing suffering.
Baby Rifat faced “systematic” abuse at the hands of his parents and died of a brain injury on 5 July 2016, the Old Bailey heard last week.
The child had 38 rib fractures, eight leg fractures and a broken spine.
Jurors also heard he had been whipped with a mobile phone charger and burned on a radiator.
Rifat’s mother, Rebeka Nazmin, 32, was cleared of murder but found guilty of allowing the death of her child and causing him to suffer.
She told the court her husband had a problem with Rifat’s deformed hand and ear, and may have abused him because of it.
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Both parents blamed a young child with autism for Rifat’s injuries.
However, their stories were contradicted in a police interview with the child in which the child told officers they had been instructed by Nazmin to shake the baby to rouse him.
The child said: “I told [Nazmin] about it and she said I should shake him or put water on him. If he wakes, he’s fine. If not, I will have to call the ambulance.”
The court heard the child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, previously had behavioural problems but had been “charming” and delightful” since receiving specialist help in the months before Rifat’s death.
Both Nazmin and Miah denied murder.
Miah was cleared of cruelty to two other children.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Spencer told Miah only he could know why he abused his son – whether it was an “angry response” to being laid up all day with a bad back or “deliberate cruelty”.
He told Nazmin: “But for your failure to protect Rifat from his father he might well still be alive.”
