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Mother tried for drowning child live on MSN

A Norwegian woman on Monday pleaded not guilty to murdering her 22-month-old daughter at the opening of a trial where she is accused of drowning the child while following live online instructions.

Published: 10 March 2014 15:59 CET

Mother tried for drowning child live on MSN

Oslo District Court. Photo: Sean Hayford O'Leary/Flickr

The woman's British lover, accused of giving instructions for the murder via an online video service, also pleaded his innocence in Oslo District Court.

Yasmin Chaudhry, 28, and Ammaz Omer Qureshi, 35, are accused of drowning the woman's daughter from another relationship by plunging her head into a bucket of water in October 2010.

The murder took place, according to investigators, after the toddler interrupted the couple during an online video chat via MSN in the early hours of the morning.

The man, who was in London at the time, allegedly told the woman to "discipline" the child and issued instructions which led to Chaudhry plunging the child's head under water until she lost consciousness.

Chaudry then called emergency services and reported the incident as an accident. The child died in hospital the following day.

On Monday she pleaded not guilty to first degree murder but admitted to assaulting the child. She said her lover had told her that if the child was not disciplined she would develop loose Western habits.

"I had to command respect from her. If not, she would turn into a typical Norwegian woman, just asking to be raped," the woman told the court.

Her lover denied any involvement in the crime.

In addition to the murder, the duo are accused of "regularly" torturing the girl over a six-month period — the mother allegedly received online instructions from Qureshi who also witnessed some of the abuse via the Internet.

During the assault the child was forced to swallow a spoon of chilli powder, was gagged with adhesive tape, given cold showers and was slapped around the face.

If found guilty of murder the couple face a 21-year jail sentence. Child abuse carries a six-year sentence.

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Norwegian police charge Olympic champion's father for domestic violence

Jakob Ingebrigtsen and two of his brothers, Henrik and Filip, who are also athletes, shocked Norway last October when they accused their father of being violent.

“We grew up with a very aggressive and authoritarian father, who used physical violence and threats as part of his upbringing,” the brothers wrote in an op-ed for newspaper VG. “We still feel a sense of discomfort and fear that we have felt since childhood,” they added.

Police opened a probe into the abuse claims and on Monday said prosecutors had decided to charge Gjert Ingebrigtsen, 58, with domestic violence against one of his children.

According to a source close to the case, the acts in question do not concern the trio of known athletes but another, younger child.

Over a period of four years, from 2018 to 2022, Gjert Ingebrigtsen allegedly manhandled, insulted, threatened and hit the child in the face with his hand or with a towel.

Responding to questions from AFP, Therese Braut Vage, who led the investigation, would not confirm this account.

Police said they had closed investigations into other events concerning the six other children in the home either due to a lack of evidence or, in one case, because the statute of limitations having expired.

Gjert, who coached Jakob until after the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo — where Jakob won the gold — has always denied the accusations against him.

“As far as the dismissed cases, we agree that there is no evidence to prove that Ingebrigtsen committed any wrongdoing,” his lawyer John Christian Elden told AFP on Monday.

“For the rest, Ingebrigtsen disputes the description of the facts on which the indictment is based — and he therefore does not admit his guilt,” he continued in an email.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is the most successful of the three brothers, twice winning gold in the world championships 5000m in 2022 and 2023, as well as the Olympic 1500m gold.

The 23-year-old is also preparing for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

Henrik, 33, and Filip, 31, were European champions in the 1500m in 2012 and 2016 respectively.

After breaking with his sons, Gjert Ingebrigtsen shocked Norwegian athletics by becoming the trainer of another runner, Narve Gilje Nordas.

The Norwegian Olympic Committee has said that Gjert will not be granted accreditation for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, as was the case at last year’s World Athletics Championships.

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