Three-month-old Kaylani Kalanzi was on a child protection plan when she was admitted to hospital on July 8, 2024, after being violently shaken with an impact to her head. She suffered catastrophic brain injuries, a broken leg and ribs, and died in hospital 15 days later. Her parents, Herbert Kalanzi, 35, and Nazli Merthoca, 24, face charges of murder and causing or allowing her death. The parents were in a volatile, mutually abusive relationship with reported drug use by Merthoca. Kaylani had been born prematurely and spent 29 days in special care before being discharged on May 13, 2024. Messages on WhatsApp and Snapchat revealed the extent of parental volatility.
Opening their Old Bailey trial on Tuesday, prosecutor Zoe Johnson KC said: "Kaylani was an otherwise healthy baby who suffered terrible injuries during the evening of July 8, 2024." Those injuries, caused by a parent who should have been protecting Kaylani, were the culmination of a short life lived in an abusive and dangerous environment. Ms Johnson told jurors that the defendants were in a "mutually abusive relationship" with Merthoca consuming drugs.
As a result, Kaylani was vulnerable to her parents' inability to put her first and protect her from harm, jurors were told. As their relationship "spiralled out of control", Kaylani was "caught up in the middle of it", the prosecutor told jurors. Kaylani had been born prematurely and spent 29 days in the special care baby unit at North Middlesex Hospital before being allowed home on May 13 2024.
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