Ayesha Ali trial: Twisted fictional world took months of investigation by police

Eight-year-old Ayesha Ali was subjected to sustained torture based on a bizarre web of lies unlike anything that detectives had previously come across.

Detective Inspector Donna Convery, from the Homicide and Major Crime Command, said it took months of work by specialist officers to fully investigate the series of fictional characters created by Kikki Muddar to encourage her lover Polly Chowdhury to abuse her own daughter.

Chowdhury, 35, and Muddar, 43, were this morning found guilty of Ayesha’s manslaughter at the flat they shared in Broomfield Road, Chadwell Heath, on the night of 28 August 2013. They were cleared of murder.

Speaking after the verdict, DI Convery said: “Ayesha should have been protected by the one woman she thought she could trust but her mother, Polly Chowdhury, allowed herself to be influenced by Muddar so that sustained mental and finally physical abuse could be inflicted on her daughter.

“In the six months before her death Ayesha was subjected to horrific levels of mental abuse, which during the summer holidays escalated to become physical. She was an innocent child who was caught up in the most bizarre set of events, manipulated by two adults who were intent on causing her harm.

“What the motivation behind this campaign of abuse was remains unclear. What is painfully clear, however, is that Ayesha, an eight-year-old girl, has had her life taken away in horribly brutal circumstances.”

Muddar and Chowdhury will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday.