Starved to Death, Waiting for Help That Never Came
Hutton, 43, the daughter of a nurse, came from a middle class background and was “well-spoken”, something which appeared to have thrown some of those who came into contact with her.
She was working as a care assistant for the elderly when she met Aftab Khan, a taxi driver, and had her first child in 1989, aged 18. The couple had seven more, including Hamzah, who was born on June 17, 2005.
By then Hutton was well known to police, who had been called to her home repeatedly for years following beatings by Khan. They answered 999 calls from Hutton eight times between 2004 and 2008. Hamzah was born into a family already in chaos, but following the death of Hutton’s mother on Christmas Eve 2005 she turned to drink, and repeatedly asked the police, doctors and social workers for help.
In the year after Hamzah’s birth, she asked police for help in getting away from her abusive husband, asked her GP for help with depression and asked the local social services child protection unit for advice.
Hamzah, meanwhile, was slowly starving. Having been seen at home by a midwife six days after his birth, and by a health visitor two weeks later, he was never again seen by a health professional. Health visitors who went to the home more than six times following missed immunisations eventually gave up after Hutton slammed the door in their face.