AN EVIL British pilot who smashed his “smiling” baby’s brains in a drunken hotel rampage has been caged for 20 years.
Airbus captain Mohamed Barakat, 42, “crushed the brains” and fractured the skull of one-year-old Sophia by bashing her head against a wall, a court ruled in Kazakhstan.
Today the monster dad was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of murdering his baby while he was intoxicated by booze and drugs at a luxury hotel in Kazakhstan.
He had earlier beat his Kazakh wife Madina Abdullayeva, 23, during a row, the court heard during the trial.
A judge today rejected the London-born pilot’s claim that the child was fatally injured in an “accident” resulting from an “epileptic fit”.
Her fatal wounds were caused by “repeated impact with hard objects and surfaces, and could not be obtained from a fall”, said Judge Bakhytkhan Bakirbayev.
There was “no evidence” Barakat had previously suffered from epilepsy, he added.
Barakat looked stunned at the verdict held via Zoom at Almaty city court.
His wife was in tears, covering her face with her left palm, as she listened to the verdict.
She had earlier changed her testimony to call on the judge to find her British husband not guilty, telling the trial she wanted to have more children with him.
Barakat – a pilot employed by a subsidiary of Hong Kong Airlines – will serve his entire jail sentence in Kazakhstan jail, said the court authorities.
On his release he will be banned from entering the country for five years.
His guilt was proved “by the testimony of a witness – a maid who heard the sounds of banging on the wall, after which the crying of the child fell silent,” said a court statement issued by press secretary Abay Zharylkasyn.
Madina had earlier fled the hotel room after Barakat beat her, according to witnesses.
The maid went back inside and picked up the baby who was lying on the floor.
She then “carried the child unconscious in her arms”.
Shocking CCTV evidence showed how his wife carried the baby to the lobby of the five star InterContinental Hotel in Almaty in the early morning of 24 October last year.
Ten witnesses told how she claimed her husband had killed the child, said the judge.
The baby was “motionless” and “blue” in colour.
Madina had shouted: “He killed my child, he hit her,” according to one hotel staff member.
The wife several times collapsed in the lobby as staff called medics who found the baby to be dead.
A receptionist had recalled how baby Sophia was “always smiling” after the family checked into the plush hotel.
Barakat received a maximum sentence under the criminal code.
This was because of the “aggravating circumstance” of committing the murder “in a state of alcoholic and drug intoxication”, said the court statement.
The trial heard evidence that the Airbus captain – flying cargo planes at the time of the killing – had a secret stash of cannabis in his hotel room, and had previously taken cocaine.
He was given 15 days to appeal the conviction and sentence.
sunit
