'This was a dreadful crime': Judge blasts mother as he jails her for life for beating son, 7, to death over Koran recitals
- Sara Ege, 33, beat son with a stick and burnt his body to conceal injuries
- She confessed but later retracted her statement
- Tried to blame her husband for killing their son but he is cleared
A mother who murdered her son for failing to learn passages of the Koran by heart was jailed for life yesterday.
Sara Ege, 33, beat seven-year-old Yaseen to death and then burned his body in an attempt to destroy the evidence.
Yesterday she sobbed and collapsed in the dock as she was told she will spend a minimum of 17 years in prison for the killing.
Afterwards Yaseen’s father and teachers paid tribute to a ‘beautiful’ and ‘happy’ boy.
Ege had previously blamed her husband for their son’s death. But a jury found her to be solely responsible for Yaseen’s death after she admitted beating him ‘like a dog’.
The court heard that Ege had become obsessed with her child’s apparent inability to learn entire tracts of the Koran which he was taught after school at a mosque.
On the day he died, the popular schoolboy had been due to go to a teddy bear’s picnic but did not attend because his mother wanted him to spend more time on the Koran.
After he died, Ege, who had been beating her child for the previous three months, set fire to the family home in Cardiff, and it was thought the boy had died in the blaze.
It later emerged that Yaseen had died before the flames took hold, and his mother was arrested on suspicion of his murder.
Ege, a mathematics graduate, told investigating officers she was trying to teach her son the Koran. She said: ‘I was getting more and more frustrated. If he didn’t read it properly I would be very angry – I would hit him. ‘We had a high target, I wanted him to learn 35 pages in three months. I promised him a new bike if he could do it. But Yaseen wasn’t very good. After a year of practice he had only learned a chapter.
‘I was getting all this bad stuff in my head, like I couldn’t concentrate, I was getting angry too much, I would shout at Yaseen all the time. I was getting very wild and I hit Yaseen with a stick on his back like a dog. He would be doing his work and wouldn’t complain and I would hit and hit him more and more.
‘He was a good boy but I used to get angry and he wouldn’t even stop me or say anything to anyone.’
Ege hit Yaseen with a stick, a hammer, a rolling pin and a slipper as well as repeatedly punching him.
She later told her GP: ‘It is the devil which is telling me to do all these bad things. I have become so harsh, I even killed my own son.’
Ege also told the doctor she felt ‘100 per cent better’ after her son died. Yesterday she collapsed during sentencing at Cardiff Crown Court which followed her convictions last month for murder and perverting the course of justice.
Mr Justice Wyn Williams told her Yaseen had been subjected to ‘prolonged cruelty’ and suffered a ‘good deal of pain’ before he died from internal injuries in July 2010. He added: ‘This was a dreadful crime.’
Ege had previously falsely accused her taxi-driver husband Yousef Ege, 38, of being a violent bully who beat her and claimed he was their son’s real killer. He was later cleared of causing or allowing his son’s death by failing to act to prevent it and told the jury he had never seen his wife raise her hand.
Both parents had encouraged Yaseen to attend advanced classes at their local mosque because they wanted him to become ‘Hafiz’ – an Islamic term for someone who memorises the Koran.
Pathologists found multiple injuries on Yaseen’s body including broken ribs, a fractured arm and a fractured finger.
Barbecue lighter fuel was found on Ege’s clothing when she was arrested after the post-mortem examination.
She was found guilty of murder and perverting the course of justice by burning Yaseen’s body.
Yesterday her husband said of his son: ‘He was loved by all who had known him due to his beautiful nature and his high academic level.’
Ann James, head teacher at Radnor Primary School in Cardiff where Yaseen was a pupil, said: ‘He was a delightful little boy and beautifully behaved who always had a smile on his face.’
