Ayesha Ali

**Ayesha Ali** (2004 - August 28, 2013) was a British Indian 8-year-old girl who was killed by her mother, Polly Chowdhury and Kiki Muddar.

## Events

### Backstory

Polly Chowdhury was born in 1979, brought up by Indian Muslim parents in Hampstead. She had a troubled childhood and teenage years. She grew up in a strict family and as a teen she fell pregnant out of wedlock. Her pregnancy was terminated and, as a result, she endured a tremendous amount of trauma and conflict within the family home. Soon after, Polly was subject to an arranged marriage which turned out to be abusive. Following this, Polly was described as a very troubled woman, who was extremely vulnerable, had low self-esteem, who was looking for someone to guide her through life.

In 1996, aged 17, Polly met Afsar Ali whilst working as a legal secretary. They married, went on to have three children and set up home in Chadwell Heath. Ayesha was born in 2004.

Kiki Muddar met Polly in 2007, when Polly and her husband, Afsar, move in next door. Kiki soon developed a sort of obsession with Polly and soon discovered how malleable Polly really was. Kiki lied about having serious cancer and a boyfriend who was killed in the London riots in order to gain sympathy from Polly.

By 2011, Afsar became unhappy with Kiki and Polly's friendship. Afsar eventually became fed up with this overly intrusive neighbour and decided to move the family away from Chadwell Heath to get away from Kiki. Unfortunately, this did not deter Kiki and she soon found where the family had moved to and invited herself to move in to the Ali home, claiming that her cancer was too painful for her to live alone anymore.

Soon after moving in, Kiki began to sleep in Polly's bed with her, leaving Afsar to sleep on the couch. Polly's relationship with Afsar deteriorated rapidly and, in the end, Afsar and Polly split up. Polly and Kiki continued their relationship.

After splitting from Afsar, Polly struck up a number of online relationships, predominately on Facebook. One that stood out was with a mystery man, "Jimmy Chowdhury". The relationship with "Jimmy" very quickly became romantic, despite the pair never meeting. During the investigation, it transpired that "Jimmy Chowdhury" was a fake profile made by Kiki Muddar.

Kiki had created the profile in an attempt to manipulate Polly into having a sexual relationship with her. Polly believed she was in love with "Jimmy" and she was persuaded through Kiki Muddar and online messages with Jimmy, to have a sexual relationship with him through Kiki. Polly claims to be heterosexual and found it difficult to have same-sex relations, therefore Kiki felt the need to create this male character to convince Polly that it was a heterosexual relationship.

Polly had a deep belief in spirits, the afterlife and ghosts and as a result, Polly believed that Jimmy, somehow, lived within Kiki. So whenever Polly would have intercourse with Kiki, she was in fact, in her mind, having intercourse with Jimmy.

Kiki created a second online character, a spirt guide called "Skyman", knowing that Polly's deep spiritual beliefs would make her believe that "Skyman" existed. Kiki used "Skyman" to attack and abuse Ayesha. Kiki continued to groom Polly, convincing her that Ayesha was possessed by a devil and needed to die. "Skyman" would send Polly specific instructions regarding Ayesha and if Polly refused, there would be dire consequences.

### Discovery

Emergency services attend the address after being alerted to a woman having attempted suicide. Paramedics find injured 33-year-old mother, Polly Chowdhury in one room and her eight-year-old daughter, Ayesha, lying motionless in another room. Despite best efforts, Ayesha Ali is declared dead at the scene.

Polly Chowdhury had left suicide notes claiming to have smothered Alesha before attempting to take her own life. In these notes, Polly claimed that Ayesha had tried to drown herself in the bath and after unsuccessful attempts at revival, Polly suffocated Ayesha with a pillow to save her any more suffering.

Polly survived her suicide attempt, was taken to hospital and, later that day, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

### Murder

Ayesha Ali had never gotten along with Kiki Muddar and as Kiki's control over Polly became complete, the abuse of Ayesha began. Ayesha was beaten, slapped and forced to sit in a cold bath after the tiniest misdemeanour. Despite the horrendous physical abuse, the mental cruelty was on a totally different scale. Kiki took on the role of disciplinarian with Ayesha, with the support and backing of Polly. Kiki would repeatedly tell Ayesha she was evil, possessed and needed to be disciplined.

Police found that Kiki kept detailed lists of Ayesha's good and bad behaviour. The "bad things" were ridiculous thing like putting her shoes in the wrong place or not hearing someone talking to her from another room. The "good things" were just as ridiculous like being quick in the bathroom and finishing a jam sandwich on time.

During the summer of 2013, the mental and physical torture worsened. With Ayesha at home all the time during the school vacation, Ayesha had no protection or respite from what Kiki was doing to her. One night, Kiki dressed up in a Halloween costume and woke Ayesha up to scare her. Ayesha shouted for her mother and her mother denied Kiki was there (despite being stood right next to her); convincing 8-year-old Ayesha that she was seeing real monsters and ghosts.

Police are able to determine that both Kiki Muddar and Polly Chowdhury were in the flat during the time that Ayesha suffered her fatal injuries. With Polly and Kiki exchanging hundreds of messages everyday, tho hours of radio silence on the day of Ayesha's death suggests that something happened. Police are unable to determine whether within that two-hour timeframe, who had done what.

Pathologists determined that Ayesha did suffer an injury in the bath and that she was still alive afterwards. However, neither Kiki or Polly called an ambulance. Kiki Muddar, instead, left the residence and went to her parents house and left Polly and Ayesha in the flat. Polly did nothing with Ayesha for a while and then, smothered her with a pillow. Investigators believe Ayesha was already dead by then.

The police were ultimately unable to determine who had delivered the fatal blow to Ayesha. The judge said in his sentencing remarks that he believed Ayesha had been assaulted in the bath and died as a result.

### Investigation

At the scene, police interviewed 41-year-old Kiki Muddar, Polly's flatmate, who's lack of interest in the wellbeing of Ayesha was noted as strange by the police but all the initial evidence pointed to Polly Chowdhury.

The autopsy carried out on Ayesha's body raised questions about Polly's account of events. She had more than 50 injuries to her body including bruises, carpet burns, a bite mark on her shoulder and some very serious head injuries. Her cause of death was given as blunt trauma to the head; likely to be caused by a wall, a floor or another hard surface. These facts contradicted what Polly had claimed in her suicide note, that she had smothered Polly.

As it became clearer how significant Kiki was in Polly's life, police seized Kiki's computer and mobile phone as evidence. This is when everything started to transpire about "Jimmy Chowhury".

Police found that Ayesha kept a record of her life. They found several diaries and notes that she was writing about her behaviour. In the last months of her life, Ayesha had started to blame herself for all the abuse she endured. She wrote that she was desperate to change and be good to try and win the affections of her own mother.

### Arrest

Having discovered from the electronic evidence that Kiki Muddar was behind both "Jimmy Chowdhury" and "Skyman"; police were able to place Kiki Muddar at the scene around the time that Ayesha had died. Detectives felt they had a strong enough case to charge both women with the death of Ayesha.

Polly was in custody as soon as she was released by the hospital follwoing her suicide attempt. On the 1st October 2013, Kiki was also arrested and charged with Ayesha's murder.

### Trial

The police and the Crown prosecutors were in a difficult position preparing for the trial. They wanted to pitch their case at the highest possible level that this was a murder, this was an agreement between Polly and Kiki that they themselves would enter into a sexual relationship and that the battering that Ayesha suffered was deliberate. Both Polly and Kiki insisted throughout the police investigation that they were innocent of Ayesha's death and that Skyman and Jimmy were real.

In January 2015, Polly Chowdhury and Kiki Muddar stood trial at the Old Bailey for the killing of Chowdhury's eight-year-old daughter, Ayesha Ali. It was the first time the two women had been together since the death of Ayesha. The judge gave the jury two choices if they were to convict, murder or manslaughter.

They came into the court, more or less the same time, and they sat at opposite ends of the box. Kiki Muddar chose not to say or do anything, she was blank throughout the whole trial. Polly Chowdhury did not even look at her. They both pleaded not guilty to both murder and manslaughter.

Throughout the trial, it was clear that Polly was devastated at the loss of her daughter. However, Kiki showed little to no emotion.

Halfway through the trial, Kiki prepared a written statement for her lawyers to read where she admits that Jimmy Chowdhury is not a real person, she never had cancer but that Polly had told her to say these things. This statement had a profound effect on Polly and she fled the court in tears, suddenly realising what had happened to her daughter. She now had to separate the real world from the fantasy world that Kiki Muddar had created. Polly seemed to realise she had allowed her daughter to be tortured and murdered.

Both Kiki Muddar and Polly Chowdhury were found guilty of manslaughter.

Kiki Muddar was sentenced to 18 years; reduced to 15 years on appeal.

Polly Chowdhury was sentenced to 13 years; reduced to 10 years on appeal.

## News

*For news articles on Ayesha Ali, see here.*

## In popular media

* Deadliest Mums & Dads - *The Tragedy of Ayesha Ali* (3 December 2021)