'My vegan sister stopped posting son on social media before horror discovery'

A woman has told how her fanatical vegan sister stopped posting pictures of her toddler on social media before police discovered the boy had been starved to death.

Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah, 43, was jailed for 19 years and six months in December along with 42-year-old husband Tai-Zamarai Yasharahyalah, who was given 24 years after their son, four-year-old Abiyah, was found buried in the garden of their former home in Birmingham. The couple'slimited diet and rejection of conventional medicineis said to have had "disastrous" consequences for Abiyah, whose skeletal remains were found by forensic experts to show signs of severe cruelty and neglect after he was uncovered in December 2022.

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It was established that he died in 2020. In court, it was heard Naiyahmi and Tai-Zamarai were adherents of Royal Ahayah's Witness, an obscure religious movement, and ate a strict diet of only fruit, nuts, and seeds as part of their beliefs.

When Abiyah's body was exhumed, he was found to have suffered severe malnutrition, rickets, anaemia, stunted growth, bone malformation and deformity, bone fractures, pseudoarthrosis, severe dental decay and infection and poor immunity.

Naiyahmi's sister, Cassie Rowe, 47, has recalled how she first thought something might be wrong when Naiyahmi suddenly stopped posting pictures of her son on social media.

She told the Mail Online: "I did notice that she'd stopped posting Abiyah on social media, but I just assumed that it was to do with not wanting [him] on social media anymore."

Cassie went on to discuss her concerns with her mother, who suggested she get in touch with Naiyahmi.

She explained that the rest of the family had a strained relationship with Naiyahmi after providing her with extensive support as a single mum, and that at the time she had been dealing with her own health issues.

Cassie and Naiyahmi would speak briefly in early 2021 after she posted on social media about her health woes - but she did not mention Abiyah, who by this stage had already died and was secretly buried.

She recalled: "She was asking me about my health issues and I was just saying to her that I was fine, I was seeing the doctors and that I had been given medication.

"She started telling me that she was going through some health issues and it was some spiritual thing, but that was after Abiyah had died."

The next time she heard about Abiyah was when police came to inform her about his remains being discovered in 2022.

She was the first in the family to be told, and said there were initially disagreements between relatives over whether to sympathise with Naiyahmi as they figured out what happened.

In court, Naiyahmi and Tai Yasharahyala denied causing or allowing Abiyah to die, and claimed that their conduct throughout was in accordance with their cultural beliefs. But a judge found that couple, both separately and together, neglected Abiyah by failing to provide him with adequate food and medical care.

Photos of Abiyah taken between July and September 2019 showed that he had swollen wrists, knees and ankles, along with an unusually prominent forehead which suggested a severe vitamin D deficiency. The length of his thigh bone was equivalent to that of a 14-month-old child, and there was evidence of five bone fractures which took place around three to seven weeks before his death.

Last month, the rest of the family were finally able to lay Abiyah to rest after "years of legal proceedings and heartbreak".

Cassie is now raising money via GoFundMeto buy a headstone for Abiyah, who currently has an unmarked burial in a Birmingham City Council cemetery. She vows that "every donation, no matter how small, will go toward giving Abiyah the resting place he deserves", and has so far raised £1,680 of a £1,800 target.