Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘ONE OF DEAD GIRL’S PARENTS INNOCENT’
Defence lawyer says no indication two people involved in child’s killing
AT least one of a husband and wife accused of killing their daughter must be innocent, a court heard yesterday.
Concerns were raised that Abdul and Aleksandra Wahab have been charged with the murder of five-year-old Nadia Zofia Kalinowska.
She was discovered at the family’s home in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, in December last year.
Examinations confirmed she had suffered head and abdominal injuries which prosecutors have likened to forces exerted a in road traffic collision.
Evidence of multiple fractures at various stages of healing were also found.
Abdul Wahab, 32, and Aleksandra Wahab, 26, are in custody jointly charged with murder, causing or allowing the death of a child and grievous bodily harm with intent to Nadia over a year-long period. The couple, originally from Pakistan and Poland respectively, emphatically deny all allegations against them. They claim Nadia sustained the fatal injuries when she fell down a flight of stairs at their Fernagh Drive home in the middle of the night.
Yesterday at Belfast Magistrates Court a solicitor for Abdul Wahab said senior counsel now instructed in the case has expressed “serious
BELFAST MAGISTRATES
concerns”. Danny Mcnamee submitted: “We have two people charged with the murder of the infant child.
“There doesn’t appear to be any indication from the police or anyone else that both these people were involved in this assault.
“His [senior counsel’s] concern is very simple. It must be blatantly obvious to all involved in this case that at least one of these people has to be innocent.”
Aleksandra Wahab’s barrister Gavyn Cairns revealed his client is now heavily pregnant.
Based on her condition, and indications that it could take up to 10 months to obtain a full postmortem report, renewed bail applications are anticipated.
District Judge Fiona Bagnall agreed to adjourn both defendants’ cases for two weeks.