Drug addict couple are jailed for ‘cynical charade’ on bus over death of their baby

A COUPLE who staged a “cynical charade” on a bus to cover up their baby’s torture and death at home have been jailed for 11 years.

Drug addicts Jeffrey Wiltshire, 52, and Rosalin Baker, 25, concocted a “devious” plan to get away with the horrific abuse of 16-week-old Imani which culminated in her death in September last year.

Baker blamed her abusive and controlling boyfriend and claimed he had tried to frame her by forcing her on to the bus with their dead child in a sling.

But former rapper Wiltshire, who claimed to have fathered 25 children, insisted: “I’m not a life taker, I’m a baby maker.”

Following a trial at the Old Bailey last month, they were cleared of murder but convicted of causing or allowing the death of their daughter, who was on the child protection register.

Sentencing, Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC said Imani had been born prematurely and her last days must have been “terrifying, painful and bewildering”.

He told her parents: “Both of you at all times put your interests before those of a helpless and dependent baby for whom you were responsible.”

He said they had told so many lies about what happened that their credibility was “always in doubt”.

Imani’s fatal head injuries were likened to those from a road crash or falling from a first-floor window, he said.

Even though the jury could not be sure who was responsible, Judge Hilliard said that given the extent of her injuries he had concluded that whoever had done it intended really serious bodily harm.

He described the cover-up on the bus as a “cynical charade”.

“You used the dead body of your daughter as part of an attempt to conceal what really happened.”

After the case, Fjoralba Shmitz relived one of the “worst” moments of her life as she desperately tried to save Imani on the bus.

She told how Baker had asked for help saying there was something wrong with her baby.

Ms Shmitz found Imani was “cold” but still attempted to give her first aid.

She said: “I was in complete shock; it was one of the worst moments of my life. I tried my best but I couldn’t do anything to save Imani’s life.

“The bus was carrying many passengers that day and everyone was in shock. Everyone kept asking me, ‘Is that your baby?’, not realising that Imani’s mother was the one sitting on her phone the entire time. What I don’t understand is that the person who is supposed to protect her child did nothing. The events of that day have left me very upset.”