‘I’ve killed my son’
What neighbours ‘heard teacher cry after boy of 2’s death in Finland’
‘He turned blue and is very cold’
A BRITISH mother shouted ‘I’ve killed my son’ as she was arrested for the murder of her two- year- old child, witnesses claimed.
Ayesha Ali, 35, who was working as a freelance English teacher in Finland, had been fighting her ex-husband for custody of their son Adam.
Miss Alia, who has a master’s degree in human rights and speaks six languages, was held on suspicion of murder after police broke into her flat and found her son’s body. Officers were called to Miss Ali’s flat in Espoo, 13 miles west of Helsinki, last Sunday.
A neighbour told how she heard another woman shouting in English from outside the block. She said: ‘There was a friend of [Miss Ali] looking up at her apartment shouting, “Ayesha! We’re here to help you. We can talk about it”. She was shouting back that she wanted to die. The woman was let into the building by another neighbour and I could hear her saying she had already called the police.
‘When the police arrived... they attempted to do CPR on the boy. His mum had been saying, “He turned blue and is very cold”.’
Another neighbour told the Sunday Mirror: ‘Police broke the lock to get into the apartment. He was a lovely little boy – very cute. I would see her taking him out to the park in a stroller. It’s a sad case.’
Neighbours said Miss Ali was taken away in a wheelchair while reportedly shouting: ‘I’ve killed my son.’
It is understood Miss Ali, who once worked at the UN, had spent months in a custody battle with the child’s father Adnane Osmane, a Canadian who had previously taught and researched at Oxford University. The couple had moved to Finland last January when Mr Osmane became physics professor at Aalto University. They had been married for eight years but separated last year. Mr Osmane filed for divorce in May.
Miss Ali had hinted at the custody dispute on her website, writing: ‘ Some recent personal experiences have piqued my interest in family law and the experiences of immigrant women and children in Finland.’
The couple eventually agreed to shared custody, with Miss Ali, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, taking care of her son from Sunday to Tuesday.
Her father Imtiaz, 73, has insisted the boy’s death was accidental. He said: ‘She hasn’t admitted to murder. She has been admitted to a hospital in Helsinki.’