Woman who killed neighbour’s little girl, 11, with bedbug poison gas spared prison
A judge found that Akter’s decision to import the poison gas from Italy on a passenger flight could have caused a "catastrophic mid-air incident and put hundreds of lives at risk"
A woman who killed her 11-year-old neighbour with illegally imported poison gas has been spared jail.
Mother-of-two Jesmin Akter, 34, had illegally imported aluminium phosphide from Italy to deal with a bedbug infestation in her flat in Nida House, in Tower Hamlets, in east London. The mum failed to read the packaging of the gas before distributing a deadly amount around her flat and taking her family out for 24 hours.
After the family left the phosphide-laden flat, the substance reacted with moisture, creating the poisonous gas phosphine, a compound likened to chemical warfare agents. It seeped into a neighbouring flat, killing Fatiha Sabrin on her 11th birthday and causing another young child to be hospitalised on December 11, 2021.
Akter admitted manslaughter by committing an unlawful act and importing a regulated substance. She was today sentenced to two years in jail suspended for two years plus 150 hours of unpaid work. Old Bailey Judge Alexia Durran noted there had been a problem with bedbugs in the defendant’s block of flats.
She said: "The landlord had taken some action but it appears to have been rather cursory and the employees used to carry out the fumigation in the past do not appear to have been well trained or trained at all." Akter’s decision to deal with the issue by taking aluminium phosphide on a passenger flight from Italy could have caused a “catastrophic mid-air incident and put hundreds of lives at risk” if the packaging had been damaged, the judge said.
The judge added that within a "relatively short period" of Akter distributing the tablets in her flat, other occupants, including children in the block began to feel unwell, she said. The judge referred to a moving statement from Fatiha’s “heartbroken” father, Mohammed Islam, who described his daughter as an "amazing, intelligent child".
Locals have left tribute to the 11-year-old who died after the poison developed ( Image: Phil Harris)
Fatiha woke at 4am on the morning of December 11 complaining to her mother Kaniz that she needed the toilet and was vomiting, and her mother called her GP and the helpline 111 before phoning 999 at 9.30am. Initially, Fatiha was advised by paramedics to take diarrhoea medication and eat plain food. Emergency services were called again at 1.30pm as Fatiha’s condition deteriorated.
She fell unconscious at 3.30pm and died in hospital just before 5pm. The fire brigade declared a hazardous materials incident and further checks identified the poison.
The judge said she could not impose a sentence that would "bring Fatiha back and will seem inadequate to Fatiha’s family", adding that Akter was "overwhelmed with crippling guilt" and it seemed "highly unlikely you will ever forget what happened to Fatiha was the result of your actions".
The court had heard how the defendant imported the aluminium phosphide from Italy without a licence on November 26 2021. Initially, she told police that she had bought the substance in a shop but later admitted her mother had brought it to Italy from Bangladesh.
Emergency services were forced to wear protective gear as they investigated the home ( Image: Phil Harris)
Prosecutor James Dawes KC said the levels of phosphine gas which escaped into the Fatiha’s home was estimated as being between two-and-a-half and 26 times the known lethal dose. The prosecutor said phosphine was considered “on a par with chemical warfare agents” and children were particularly vulnerable to exposure.
On entering the defendant’s flat, firefighters discovered grey powdery residue on surfaces and in the sink. The quantity used by Akter was nearly three times the amount recommended by the manufacturer in commercial warehouses and was not for use in dwellings, the court heard.
On the defendant’s explanation, Mr Dawes said: “She used it in order to eliminate bed bugs she feared were in her flat. She stated she did not know there would be a risk of danger to her neighbours by using aluminium phosphide. She did, having put out the poison, take her family out of her flat for 24 hours.”
Mr Dawes said the defendant had expressed “deep remorse” and attempted to help the victim not knowing she had caused her illness. In a handwritten statement, Akter said she obtained the “anti-bedbug” product on the advice of her family but did not read the packaging.
She said she “did not know the produced contained a dangerous poison”, saying she was “desperate after the landlord tried and failed to get rid of the infestation”. She apologised to Fatiha’s family who had “paid the price” for her actions.
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