Woman killed baby son ‘to save the world’

A MENTALLY ill woman murdered her five-month-old son after believing she had been instructed by Allah to “slaughter” him to “save the world”, a court has heard.

Mariam Benzain was said to have been suffering from psychosis when she inflicted fatal wounds on baby Elias Biad’s neck at the family home in Wembley, north-west London, on July 22, 2020.

Jurors at the Old Bailey murder trial were told 32-year-old Benzain admits unlawfully killing her baby. They will have to decide on her mental state at the time – essentially if she was insane, and therefore did not know that what she did was wrong.

Prosecutor Zoe Johnson QC said Benzain was “suffering from a disease of the mind” at the time of the attack, adding: “The symptoms of which were grandiose delusions and instructive, auditory hallucinations telling her she needed, in effect, to sacrifice her son to save the world.”

Benzain sobbed as Ms Johnson opened the case.

The prosecutor said: “Shortly before 9am, the defendant called her husband (Abdelilah Biad) – she told him that she had killed their son. She said, ‘I slaughtered Elias... Allah told me to slaughter him.’”

The court heard that Mr Biad rushed home from his job as a street cleaner, driven by a colleague, to discover the lifeless body of his son.

Emergency services found significant injuries to the baby’s throat.

Ms Johnson said: “The defendant was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Ms Johnson said that if jurors decide Benzain was legally insane at the time of the attack, the defendant would be entitled to a special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb warned jurors they “may find some of the evidence distressing”.

The trial continues.