Smiling as she accepts a food parcel... but just weeks later Mercy lay dead with her starving baby by her side
A MOTHER found dead with her starving baby by her side had appeared troubled in recent weeks, neighbours said yesterday.
The normally smiling and happy Mercy Baguma had been plunged into ‘extreme poverty’ during lockdown after she is understood to have lost her job.
A video posted in June showed Miss Baguma smiling and animated receiving a food parcel from charity African Challenge Scotland (ACS).
But neighbours in her Govan block of flats said she had been facing a difficult period and had recently appeared as if ‘her light was not quite as bright’.
The body of Ugandan-born Miss Baguma, a charity worker, was discovered by police in her flat in Glasgow after friends raised the alarm that she had not been in touch for days. The Positive Action in Housing (PAIH) charity said the devout Christian’s oneyear-old son was ‘found crying beside his mother’s body, weakened from several days of starvation’.
Witnesses said the boy was taken ‘shivering’ and ‘covered in blood’ before being treated in hospital and placed in the care of his father, believed to also be an immigrant living in Glasgow.
The Mail understands Miss Baguma had been previously granted limited leave to remain and the visa was renewed at least once.
Her application for indefinite leave to remain had been refused around five years ago. She then made an asylum claim.
She had been set to meet friends this week, but instead they attended a candlelight vigil in her honour yesterday.
Nicola Sturgeon led the tributes yesterday saying she is ‘consumed with sadness’ and anger at the death. Calling for a complete reform of the UK’s ‘deeply inhumane’ asylum system.
Miss Sturgeon added she would support all efforts to investigate Miss Baguma’s death.
Neighbours of Miss Baguma said the charity shop volunteer had begun to suffer from mental health issues during lockdown.
One neighbour, who only wished to be called John, lived opposite Miss Baguma for five years.
He said: ‘She had this big smile that you could see coming from down the street. But she wasn’t carefree. She always appeared to have something on her mind.
‘And I saw her a couple of weeks ago. She said hello but it’s like her light was not quite as bright.’
Another neighbour, NHS family support worker Brian Martin, 47, said Miss Baguma moved into the floor above him two months ago.
He said: ‘I wish I had known she was struggling, I’d have given her food from my own kitchen.’
A protest had been due to take place outside the Home Office in Glasgow but was cancelled at the 11th hour when Miss Baguma’s family objected to the gathering.
Ronier Deumeni, founder of ACS, said: ‘She came to us to ask for help. ‘We asked if she was living on the small income that she was receiving from the Home Office. That was not enough to sustain herself and her son.’
Sharon Kerr worked with Miss Baguma at the British Heart Foundation. She said: ‘She was a lovely girl, would help anyone out if they needed help. ’
The Crown Office has said an investigation is under way.
Jen Layden, City Convener for Community Empowerment, Equalities and Human Rights said: ‘We are trying to establish the full facts of Mercy’s case.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We will be conducting a full investigation.’
‘Lovely, would help anyone’