On the morning of September 28, 2016 drug addict Jeffrey Wiltshire gave a thumbs up to his girlfriend, 25-year-old Rosalin Baker, as she got on a London bus with their baby daughter Imani carried on a sling across her body.
Parents of Imani Wiltshire jailed for 11 years after staging her death on a bus in #Newham after she had already passed away. pic.twitter.com/8QCKqBdCCy
— Time 107.5 (@Time1075_FM) May 18, 2017
She was wheeling a buggy and looked to all the world like a normal mother. But Baker and Wiltshire had cooked up a sinister plot in a bid to get away with a foul crime.
As the bus plied its way through east London, Baker pretended to notice her baby was not breathing and alerted other passengers.
The driver stopped the bus and a passenger called 999 and was given assistance about how to resuscitate the child.
But Imani was already dead when Baker got on the bus and the drama that followed was a charade.
A jury was shown CCTV footage of Baker going into a shop with her dead child strapped to her chest and then being helped onto the bus by Wiltshire, who kissed her and gave her the thumbs up.
Witnesses noticed that after alerting people on the bus that her baby was dead or dying, Baker showed no emotion and talked to Wiltshire on her phone while other passengers became increasingly distressed.
The paramedics who arrived on the bus soon realized Imani had been dead for some time, and at the hospital doctors found several signs of previous injury and even torture.
A post-mortem investigation revealed Imani had a fractured skull, a broken wrist and multiple broken ribs consistent with non-accidental injury.
The 16-week-old girl was on social services' child protection register at the time.
Baker and Wiltshire were cleared of murder after a trial at the Old Bailey, but they were jailed for 11 years for "causing or allowing the death" of their 16-week-old daughter, who was on social services' child protection register.
Jeffrey Wiltshire and Rosalin Baker have been sentenced to 11 years each today for the death of their three-month old daughter Imani https://t.co/2PIoSF8iPV
— CPS (@cpsuk) May 18, 2017
The offense was introduced in 2004 after several child killers walked free from court because of a loophole in English law.
If a couple both blamed each other for the death of a child, a jury was not allowed to convict both of them for murder if it could not be sure who had actually inflicted the fatal injuries.
The new offense meant they could both be convicted. Although the sentence is not as long as for a murder conviction, which carries an automatic life sentence, it does present a modicum of justice for the child.
Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Devi Kharran said it was a "tragic case" and added:
"The medical evidence showed that before she died, baby Imani suffered a number of separate and violent assaults, including one which fractured her skull, damaged her brain and ultimately ended her life. Despite a large number of very serious and painful injuries which would have been very obvious, neither of her parents sought medical help. Instead her lifeless body was carried onto a crowded London bus to disguise the true circumstances of her death. Witnesses have told the court of the shock and distress on that bus once Imani's lifeless body was discovered. Passengers and passers-by came forward to try to save Imani. This deeply affected a number of them and adds to the cruelty displayed in this horrible crime."
When interviewed by police, Baker tried to blame Imani's injuries on a fall she suffered a few days earlier and insisted she never hurt her daughter.
During the trial she claimed Wiltshire inflicted the injuries and said he also beat her. She said she was "petrified" of her boyfriend.
Earlier this year a report said young victims of abuse were being failed by criminal justice agencies in Britain, which were not doing enough to protect them.
