A couple have been jailed for causing or allowing the death of their three-year-old son after forcing him to endure an “extreme” vegan diet.

Abiyah Yasharahyalah died from a respiratory illness while suffering from fractures, severe malnutrition, rickets, anaemia, stunted growth and severe dental decay.

Jurors heard Tai and Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah, 42 and 43, kept the boy’s body in their bed for eight days, embalmed him and then buried him in a shallow grave in their garden in early 2020.

He wasn’t found for more than two years.

The jury was told the couple shunned mainstream society in favour of their own “kingdom” in Handsworth, Birmingham, and pushed a restrictive vegan diet.

Prosecutors said it would have been obvious Abiyah was in considerable pain and neither parent could explain why they didn’t get help.

The trial was told instead of contacting NHS the couple tried to treat their son’s final illness with garlic and ginger.

The couple’s diet largely consisted of nuts, raisins and soya milk and they were both “extremely thin” when they were arrested on 9 December 2022 while living in a caravan in Glastonbury.

Abiyah’s body was finally found five days later.

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The couple denied the charges against them, telling the court they did not act wilfully and believed Abiyah would recover from a flu-like condition.

They were found guilty last week after a two-month trial at Coventry Crown Court. They were convicted of child cruelty and perverting the course of justice, as well as causing or allowing the death of a child.

Tai and Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah were jailed for 24-and-a-half years and 19-and-a-half years respectively.

An 18-year-old British man, who was sentenced to a year in prison in Dubai for having sex with a 17-year-old British girl, has urged the emirate’s ruler “to let me go home”.

Marcus Fakana, from north London, had a holiday romance in September with a girl, now aged 18, also from London.

But the girl’s mother reported the relationship to Dubai police after returning to the UK and seeing pictures and messages between the pair.

Having sex with a person under 18 years of age is illegal in Dubai. Both teenagers were on holiday with their parents from the UK, where the age of consent is 16.

Speaking in temporary accommodation while on bail, Fakana, from Tottenham, told the campaign group Detained in Dubai that he and his family are “devastated and in shock”.

“I never intended to break the law. It didn’t occur to me at the time and for that, I’m sorry. I am asking His Highness, Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum to please forgive me and pardon me.

“Let me go home. Please give me my life back,” the BBC reported.

Meanwhile, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister recognises it’s an extremely distressing situation for Marcus and his family.”

“The Foreign Office is in regular contact with his family and his legal team at this difficult time.”

The government of Dubai previously said: “Under UAE law, the girl is legally classified as a minor, and in accordance with procedures recognised internationally, her mother – being the legal guardian – filed the complaint.”

It added: “Dubai’s legal system is committed to protecting the rights of all individuals and ensuring impartial judicial proceedings.”

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Radha Stirling, Detained in Dubai’s chief executive, said in a social media post that the sentence was an “utter disgrace” and “an embarrassment to Britain”, adding that “the UK has prioritised trade deals over people’s lives”.

“The Labour government should be ashamed they have not secured the freedom of a teenage tourist. It wasn’t a difficult job.”

A rioter who helped fuel a fire outside a hotel housing asylum seekers has been jailed for nine years.

It is the joint highest sentence handed down so far over nationwide disorder which erupted after three young girls were killed in a mass stabbing at a dance class in Southport on 29 July.

Levi Fishlock, 31, was part of a 400-strong mob that congregated outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire on 4 August, and a judge said he was “involved in almost every arena of racist criminal conduct that day”.

As the violence escalated, Fishlock was seen adding planks of wood to a large burning wheelie bin pushed up against the hotel, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

He also helped build barricades that were set alight, smashed hotel windows by throwing bricks, and destroyed fencing and an air conditioning unit.

He was seen making threatening gestures with a sharp object towards people inside the hotel and he was part of a group who attacked police vehicles with rocks.

The 31-year-old was “very identifiable” because he was wearing a distinctive purple England football shirt with “Bellingham” on the back, the court heard.

Fishlock was sentenced to nine years behind bars, with an extended five-year licence period.

More than 200 asylum seekers were trapped in the upper floors of the hotel as the violence escalated outside. Staff who had barricaded themselves into a panic room feared they would die as they smelt smoke.

The riot left 60 police officers, three horses and a dog injured.

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Fishlock pleaded guilty to violent disorder and arson with intent to endanger life. He is the second person to be sentenced for the latter charge.

In September, Thomas Birley, 27, was jailed for nine years after pleading guilty to arson with intent to endanger life, violent disorder and possession of an offensive weapon for his actions in the South Yorkshire town on that day.

Handing down Fishlock’s sentence, Judge Jeremy Richardson said: “It has been my misfortune, as well as my duty, to have sentenced most of the cases arising from the public disorder in Rotherham.

“This is unquestionably one of the worst of the many cases which have come before this court concerning the events in Rotherham.

“Your conduct, and the conduct of that mob, has cast a dark and ugly stain across the reputation of Rotherham and South Yorkshire.”