Child's death sparks fresh police inquiry
A woman jailed for assaulting her baby faces a fresh police inquiry after it emerged that the child has since died.
Police say they are assessing if further action is required in the case of Sarah Ngaba, whose actions left her baby with brain damage.
Ngaba, of Briarwood, Telford, was locked up at Stafford Crown Court for 14 years in 2021 after being convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to her seven-week-old daughter.
She had admitted striking her daughter at an address in Brookside on November 13, 2019, but said she did not intend to injure her.
She failed to call an ambulance and waited more than two hours to take her to hospital.
When she arrived at hospital, the baby was unresponsive and doctors discovered several serious injuries which were consistent with a severe assault.
It has now emerged that Ngaba's daughter, Eliza, died at the age of two years old on August 15 last year.
West Mercia Police today confirmed it is reviewing the case.
In a statement the force said: "We are carrying out further enquiries into this case to establish if there is a need for further action."
It comes as an inquest into Eliza's death opened at Shirehall in Shrewsbury on Friday.
Shropshire and Telford deputy coroner Heath Westerman was told that Eliza, from Broseley, died with a traumatic brain injury on August 15, 2022, at ward 18 of Telford's Princess Royal Hospital.
Mr Westerman was told that the girl, who had cerebral palsy, was admitted to hospital with symptomatic pneumonia and Covid on August 11, 2022. She was treated with advice from Birmingham Children's Hospital.
He gave his "sincere condolences to all the family and friends".
He adjourned the full inquest to December 14, 2023.
