Mummy don’t kill me – Nigerian mother drowns 4-year-old son despite plea
A Nigerian mother has been found responsible for murdering her four-year-old son after drowning him in the bath as he begged her not to end his life.
Little Kingswealth Bayode yelled “mummy don’t kill me” moments before he died in the flat in Plumstead, south east London.
Paranoid schizophrenic Oluwakemi Badare, 37, told police that her son had pleaded for his life before she held him under the water, MyLondon reports.
Horrified paramedics found the boy naked in the hallway and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
His death came three years after his mentally unwell mum had told a nurse in 2017 that she had held her baby under the water for a minute.
Badare had denied murder but was deemed unfit to plead or to stand trial for murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter by gross negligence.
Instead, jurors were asked to consider whether she did the acts alleged, either that she drowned Kingswealth deliberately or that he died by accident.
Following a trial of issue at the Old Bailey, she was found responsible for his murder by the jury. The jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for nearly nine hours to find that the defendant intentionally killed her son.
Judge Richard Marks QC adjourned sentencing in the case until July 20.
During the trial, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said: “On December 27, 2020, the London Ambulance Service were called by this defendant to her address in Plumstead.
“She told the emergency operator that she had killed her son, and explained that she had drowned him. She also said that she had left him in the bath and forgotten about him.
“The paramedics attended. When they attended they found Kingswealth’s body at the top of the stairs outside the bathroom. His body was wet. The bathroom floor was wet. His death was the result of drowning.
“There was no natural disease that might have caused him to drown, but there were a number of scratches, bruises and skin defects about his head, neck and upper body consistent with pressure from fingernails and focal pressure to the head.
“This suggests that Kingswealth had been held under the water – and drowned deliberately.”
Paramedics had been alerted to the incident at 7.45am after Badare contacted emergency services and told the call handler that she had killed her son. She also told them she “want to do bubble bath” and had forgotten about him, as well as saying she had filled the tub with cold water.
The four-year-old was found naked on top of the stairs and no resuscitation attempts were made, given that rigor mortis had begun to set in. Officers noted that the bath was empty, although there were traces of bubbles and faeces and the bathroom floor was wet.
Badare was visibly “quite upset” and was banging her arms, and told the paramedics that the bath had taken place at midnight. When police attended, they found her sitting “calmly” by the Christmas tree, but she was later noted to be “restless” and was putting her head in her hands.
She was arrested for murder at 8.27am to which she replied “Yes, I forgot him in the bath” before collapsing. Whilst she was initially fit to interview, she later became erratic in her prison cell and told officers: “My son was telling me, Mummy don’t kill me.”
A post-mortem examination found evidence of water inhalation in his lungs, as well as a “number of linear abrasions, or scratches, bruises and skin defects about his head, neck and upper body”. These were consistent and of similar appearance to the tips of fingernails.
Jurors were told: “Although the pathologist has to be guarded in expressing an opinion, she does consider that these injuries were not inconsistent with the head being gripped.
She concluded that the injuries and indications were consistent with the death being the result of drowning facilitated by a third party – Kingswealth had been drowned by someone, rather than by accident.”
The Old Bailey had also heard that Kingswealth had been removed from her care in 2017 after she confessed to holding him under the water.
At the time of the incident, she was suffering from delusions and believed she was under surveillance. This drowning attempt had been recorded by child services and he did not return to her care until March 2018.
Following her arrest for his murder in 2020, she told a custody nurse that she had previously tried to kill her son.
Mr Atkinson had said: “The prosecution suggest it is unlikely to be a coincidence that, when unwell, the defendant should try to drown her son in 2017 and yet again in 2020, again when she was unwell, he should actually drown by accident rather than by her act.”
He told jurors their job would be to decide whether she did the act with which she is charged – that she drowned her son deliberately or accidentally.
Badare had not accepted that her son was dead and had been deemed unfit to plead upon a medical and psychiatric assessment.
The mum was unfit to stand trial for murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter by gross negligence.
Instead, jurors were asked to consider whether she did the acts alleged, either that she drowned Kingswealth deliberately or that he died by accident.
The jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for nearly nine hours to find that the defendant intentionally killed her son.
Judge Richard Marks QC adjourned sentencing in the case until July 20.
Detective Inspector Jason Crinnion of the Met’s Specialist Crime (Homicide) said: “This case is so sad, young Kingswealth Bayode lost his life at the hands of his mother, who is clearly very ill.
“Any investigation into the death of a child is harrowing for everyone involved, and that certainly includes the investigating team.
“My team have professionally gathered the evidence and presented the facts, so the jury have been able to make an informed decision, but we are all aware of how tragic this case is.” Sentencing will take place on July 20 when a hospital order will be imposed.
Follow us on social media
