সব দোষ শয়তানের

Sara Ege used a stick to beat seven-year-old Yaseen “like a dog” if he couldn’t recite passages from the Islamic text.

The beatings were so brutal that the boy died from his injuries, and his mother tried to burn the body to destroy the evidence, Cardiff Crown Court was told.

Yaseen was originally thought to have died in the house fire. But a post-mortem examination showed Mrs Ege had been beating and abusing her little boy in the months leading up to his murder.

In a video recording of her interview with police, Mrs Ege told them: “I was trying to teach him the Koran.

“I was getting more and more frustrated. If he didn’t read it properly I would be very angry — I would hit him.

“We had a high target. I wanted him to learn 35 pages in three months.

“I promised him a new bike if he could do it. But Yaseen wasn’t very good — after a year of practice he had only learnt a chapter.”

Mrs Ege told officers: “I was getting all this bad stuff in my head, like I couldn’t concentrate, I was getting angry too much, I would shout at Yaseen all the time.”

She also hit him with a hammer, a rolling pin and a slipper, as well as repeatedly punching him, the court heard.

She would allegedly lock him in the shed, tie him to a door, and force him to do press-ups.

A mother accused of murdering a son beaten “like a dog” before setting her family home alight told police “It is the devil which is telling me to do all these bad things”, a court heard yesterday.

Sara Ege, 33, denies murder and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Her husband, Yousef Ali Ege, 38, denies causing Yaseen Ali Ege’s death by failing to protect him at their house in Severn Road, Cardiff.

The court heard she told police she had repeatedly beaten the youngster with a stick “like a dog” then tried to cover up the killing by setting the family home ablaze.

Mr Murphy told the court: “The defendant said, ‘Shaitan [a term for Satan], it is the devil which is telling me to do all these bad things’.”

Today the jury heard from teaching assistant Nicola Walker who knew Yaseen at the school he attended in 2007.

She described overseeing a morning writing lesson with a group of four children, including Yaseen, some time during the year.

“Yaseen was a really bright little boy. He liked anything to do with drawing and making things,” she said.

“He wasn’t going out to play with the other boys. He was reading or drawing or playing with something. He spent more time with the girls.

“To be honest he was such a neat little boy his hand-writing was beautiful. I knew that he could be left to get on with it.”

She said that she was surprised when the writing he produced in pencil was “really untidy and not like him at all.”

She said that she got him to do the work again and noticed he was using his left hand instead of his right one.

“I asked him why he was doing that and he said ”his hand is hurting him“.

She added: “He said that his mum had hit him with a ruler.”

Richard Jonathan Higson, a firefighter for 15 years, told the court that he had done all he could to prevent the parents realising the gravity of the situation.

He said: "I interpreted that she did not want to accept the child was dead."

Paramedic Chris Willis expected Sara Ege to ask about Yaseen.

In a statement read by prosecutor David Elias he said: "I expected her ask about Yaseen but she didn't. I put it down to shock."

Mr Higson told the court Yousef Ali Ege seemed unusually calm when he arrived.

"Most people would be hysterical," he said.

Maura McGowan QC, defending Yousef Ali Ege, asked whether Mr Higson had told across anyone so calm in such a situation before.

He said: "Up to that point, I have not come into contact with a parents who was not distressed when their child was taken into an ambulance."

Richard Higson, the crew's driver, said the boy's body was "very rigid, unusually so".

He said the body was also hot, and the whole situation "didn't seem to add up... things were not usual".

He said that when Yaseen's father arrived at the scene, Sara Ege said: "He's burnt. He's burnt. He's actually burnt."

Yousuf Ali Ege, he said, replied with something like: "But is he alive?"

Mr Higson told the court Yaseen appeared to be dead, but he did not tell the parents and was trying to be "very discreet".

He told the court the father: "In my opinion appeared unusually calm."

The firefighter had the impression Sara Ege knew her son was dead, the court heard.

Under cross-examination by Mr Ege's barrister, Maura McGowan QC, Mr Higson was asked what people are usually like in a similar situation.

"Most people would be hysterical I think," he said.

Asked if he had come across someone else that reacted calmly like Mr Ege, he replied: "No, to be honest, no."

"Not in 15 years of experience?" she asked.

"Never in 15 years. No," he replied.

Mr Higson told court he could see in Sara Ege's eyes that she knew her son was dead, but "she didn't want to vocalise it, and accept that her child was dead".

The first paramedic at the scene, Chris Willis, described seeing a firefighter conducting CPR on Yaseen's badly-burned body.

His face was not swollen and there was no soot in his mouth, the court heard.

In a statement he said Sara Ege was clearly suffering from smoke inhalation.

Mr Willis went to tend to her after Yaseen.

He said: "I expected her to ask about Yaseen, but she didn't. I put it down to shock."

Phillip Allan, a firefighter with 12 years experience, described how the boy's body felt stiff.

'So personal'

The jury heard how Mr and Mrs Ege were taken to hospital in a separate ambulance to their son, who was pronounced dead en route.

Police officer Andrew Williams described the moment Mr Ege was told by a doctor that his son was dead.

He said Mr Ege fell to his knees with a loud bang and started crying, calling out his son's name.

Mr Williams said after 11 years as a policeman, it was one of the worst experiences of his life, "because it was so personal".

Mr Ege told the policeman he did not want to tell his wife, because he thought she was too weak.

Later though, the officer saw them talking to each other in a language he did not understand, and heard the words "Allah" and "Yaseen".

He thought it meant Mr Ege had told his wife that Yaseen was with Allah now, the court heard.

In the months after Yaseen’s death, Mrs Ege told a doctor she been told to kill him by Shaitan — an Islamic name for the devil, the court was told.

She said: “I have become so harsh, I even killed my own son.”