Boy killed hours after school, court told

A mother killed her four-year-old son in east London by stabbing him dozens of times hours after collecting the boy from school, a court has heard.

Kobi Dooly-Macharia was found by officers in December 2023 in his cot with dozens of knife wounds, Inner London Crown Court heard on Monday.

Keziah Macharia, 43, has been charged with murdering Kobi, but she has been deemed unfit to stand trial.

Mrs Justice Thornton is holding a “fact-finding hearing” to decide if Macharia killed Kobi, but not if she murdered him.

She told jurors not to “consider her state of mind and whether she is at fault”, which would be needed for a murder verdict.

Outlining the background to the case, Prosecutor Mukul Chawla KC said Ben Dooly and Macharia started a relationship after meeting in 2018 and their son Kobi was born in September 2019.

The couple lived together with Kobi in Macharia’s first-floor flat in Montague Road, Hackney, but the relationship deteriorated after his birth, he added.

Mr Dooly moved out and started sleeping on the sofa two or three days a week but this ended after he met his current girlfriend, Sasha Sasheva, the court heard.

Macharia was “very unhappy” with Kobi spending any time with Ms Sasheva, Mr Chawla said, adding Ms Sasheva blocked Macharia on her phone and on social media because of messages she received.

Mr Dooly last saw Kobi alive at his school nativity play the day before the alleged attack, jurors heard.

CCTV played to the court showed Macharia collecting her son from Nightingale Primary School where Kobi could be seen leaving wearing a coat and carrying a red balloon, accompanied by Macharia.

“You see nothing of distress or anything out of the ordinary in terms of her demeanour”, the prosecutor said.

He added: “It appears that at some point that evening the defendant started drinking alcohol; when she started drinking and how much she drank cannot be established”.

The court heard later that evening Macharia sent a series of WhatsApp messages to Mr Dooly – with the final one saying “Kobi is dead”.

Police were then contacted and jurors were shown body-worn footage from officers taken on the night as they broke the door in on Macharia’s home.

Jurors were shown footage of Macharia in blood-stained clothes sitting on the living room floor in front of the sofa.

Police were heard asking “who did this?” and Mr Chawla said “she raises her hand to her chest, acknowledging it was her”.

Officers documented her saying she tried to take an overdose and harm herself, the prosecutor added.

Macharia was taken to Stoke Newington Police station and had “a very blunted muted affect” and intermittently sobbed, Mr Chawla said.

“She told officers repeatedly she just wanted her baby back, and she just wanted to see his sweet face”, he added.

The trial continues.