Ex-police officer accused of ‘lie’ over events before child’s death
A retired police officer giving evidence in a murder trial involving the death of a 12-week-old baby has been accused of “over-exaggerating” and at points “lying” about events leading to the child’s death. He insists he is telling 'only the truth'.
The officer said he witnessed Eloddie Goncalves, 33, and Muritala Olaiya-Imam, 37, getting out of a taxi with baby Malik when they left the child on the floor in an infant carrier. He said the child was left there for a short period of time whilst the parents carried items from a taxi to the property.
Malik was pronounced dead after paramedics were called to an address in Harlow on August 19,2020. The prosecution claim Goncalves picked up her son, violently shook him and bashed him against surfaces that caused injuries so severe they killed him.
Giving evidence in the trial, the retired officer, who had several decades of experience working for Essex Police, said he saw the defendants when walking his dog, a terrier, and he chose to stand with a view of the child until the defendants returned from inside the flat and took him indoors. The prosecution says there is no CCTV evidence of this incident as it was “too far back” to be obtained.
In a separate incident, the witness also claimed he challenged Goncalves on an alleged use of drugs when she was leaning out the window of her flat. The court heard she allegedly then removed her vest top and insulted him by calling him “a carrot”.
The incidents were strongly opposed by the defence counsel representing both defendants. Mr Trevor Siddle, representing Muritala Olaiya-Imam, said: “That description you gave of the people coming to the flat was not an exaggeration but a bare faced lie.”
In a third incident, the officer alleged he overheard a woman, believed to be Goncalves, saying “don’t leave me, don’t leave me, don’t leave me now”. Mr Rodrick Johnson, KC, representing Goncalves, said the words heard “also happen to echo” an Elvis Presley song and proposed that the woman could have been talking to someone on the phone or shouting "to the ether".
Asked by Mr Kharim Khalil KC, prosecuting, to respond to the suggestion that the officer had said a “bare faced lie”, the retired officer said: “I’m one hundred percent sure it happened. I abide by my oath. I say only the truth.”
Goncalves, formerly of Joyners Field, Harlow, denies murder, and she denies an alternative count of causing the death of a child. She also denies assaulting an emergency worker who was trying to help Malik.
Olaiya-Imam, denies allowing the death of a child by leaving Malik alone with Goncalves. Mr Khalil said he “was or ought to have been aware of that risk” and “he should have been there to protect”. Both defendants deny cruelty to a child, which Mr Khalil said related to “older injuries” found when Malik was examined after his death.
They also both deny doing an act intending to pervert the course of justice which relates to a “contaminated” urine sample that was provided while at hospital after Malik’s death on August 19. The prosecution say that the sample was “contaminated”, adding that both defendants’ urine was in the single sample.
“We say their act to corrupt that sample was done to interfere with the police investigation,” said Mr Khalil. He said that a back calculation on a blood sample from Goncalves estimated that at 10am on August 19 she was around one and a half times over the legal drink drive limit.
A social services safety plan, signed by Goncalves and Olaiya-Imam was in place before Malik's death with conditions including Goncalves being prohibited from drinking alcohol, being alone with Malik, and that Olaiya-Imarn was to contact police if Goncalves was under the influence of alcohol.
The trial, expected to last up to six weeks, continues.
References
- ^ Lorry driver prone to falling asleep while driving killed Essex police officer in crash (www.essexlive.news)