Verphy Kudi: Gran unaware baby was being left home alone, inquest told

The grandmother of a baby who died after her mother left her home alone for six days told an inquest she was unaware the child was being left.

Verphy Kudi was jailed after her 20-month-old daughter Asiah Kudi died after being left in a flat in Brighton in December 2019.

A post-mortem examination concluded her cause of death was starvation and influenza.

Kudi is serving a nine-year sentence after admitting manslaughter in 2021.

At an inquest in Brighton on Monday into Asiah's death, her maternal grandmother said she only found out she was being left home alone when the case came to trial.

Asia Batrane, who called Asiah by her middle name Naveah, said: "The thought of Naveah being left alone haunts me until this day."

She described her granddaughter as a "peaceful baby" with "the most beautiful dark brown eyes".

Ms Batrane added: "Everyone fell in love with her instantly. She was the first grandchild. Nobody knew she wasn't going to be here for long."

Kudi left Brighton on 5 December 2019 and went to London, where she spent her 18th birthday with her boyfriend.

Two days later she attended a concert in Elephant and Castle, south-east London, where she had the DJ announce her birthday.

On 9 December she moved on to a birthday party in Coventry - 150 miles from Brighton - before returning to London the next day and then back home on 11 December, her trial heard.

When she returned home, Kudi called 999 and told paramedics her baby was not waking up.

Ms Batrane told the inquest: "No one communicated to me that Verphy was going out. No one told me that Naveah was being left alone."

Ms Batrane said she was "very anxious" when she found out her daughter was pregnant, saying she was "very young" and "had been through a lot" in her teenage years.

The inquest continues.

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