Guilty

A schizophrenic mother who stabbed her three-year-old daughter to death before dousing her body in acid in Birmingham must stay in a secure psychiatric hospital for the public's protection, a judge has ruled.

Iman Omar Yousef, 25, was sentenced by Mr Justice Flaux after a jury ruled she unlawfully killed Alia Ahmed Jama at their home in Erdington.

Yousef, an asylum seeker from Somalia, was initially charged with Alia's murder but after psychiatric assessment she was ruled unfit to plead to the charge and jurors at Birmingham Crown Court were instructed to consider whether she committed the act of unlawfully killing her daughter.

The child's body was discovered by police officers who forced entry to Yousef's home in Milverton Road on February 13.

The court heard the child had been stabbed repeatedly and acid had corroded her skin, bones and internal organs.