A Bradford mother-of-eight was today found guilty of starving her four-year-old son to death.

Amanda Hutton was unanimously found guilty of the manslaughter of Hamzah Khan by a jury at Bradford Crown Court.

Hutton, dressed in black, showed no flicker of emotion when the verdict was delivered.

She was taken away to the cells by two security guards.

Judge Roger Thomas QC, the Recorder of Bradford, told Hutton: "Tomorrow, you will be sentenced. Tariq will be here as well. Thankyou. In custody overnight."

The trial had heard that four-year-old Hamzah’s body was found nearly two years after he had died, in a mummified state, infested with insects and in part mouldy at the family home in Heaton, Bradford.

During the trial, the jury heard that experienced officers were shocked by what they discovered inside Hutton’s then home.

Hutton, 43, had denied the manslaughter of her son by gross neglect.

Summing up the case, Judge Thomas QC had told the jury that police found a “terrible Pandora’s Box” inside Hutton’s house when they went inside in September 2011 and found Hamzah’s remains.

Hutton was remanded in custody overnight to be sentenced tomorrow.

After the verdict, Detective Superintendent Lisa Griffin, of West Yorkshire Police, said it was one of the most distressing cases she had been involved with in 28 years as a police officer.


“Hamzah died of malnutrition and Amanda Hutton was responsible for that,” she said.


Malcolm Taylor, from CPS Yorkshire and Humberside’s Complex Casework Unit said: “This was a truly tragic case involving the death of a little boy, Hamzah Khan, whose body, showing signs of extreme malnutrition, was discovered amidst scenes of the most appalling squalor at the family home in Bradford in September 2011. It is likely his body had lain undiscovered for the best part of two years.


“It is heart-breaking to contemplate the suffering Hamzah must have endured. This horrific crime was compounded by the failure of either Amanda Hutton or Tariq Khan to arrange the burial of Hamzah’s body.
“Amanda Hutton has today been found guilty of manslaughter, having already pleaded guilty to preventing the burial of a corpse and child neglect. Tariq Khan also pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to preventing the burial of a corpse.
“Our thoughts remain with the rest of Hamzah’s family, in the hope that they can now start to begin to rebuild their lives.”