‘Internal bleeding killed four-year-old Maya,’ forensic expert reveals at stepmother trial

Forensic expert says girl's death was hastened by brain injury but stepmother implies injuries could have been inflicted by medics trying to save child.

DUBAI // A forensics expert on Wednesday told the trial of a woman accused of causing the death of her four-year-old stepdaughter that the child died of abdominal internal bleeding, hastened by a brain injury.
Dubai Criminal Court heard that Maya Raja had multiple bruises and injuries that were inflicted in a short period of time.
"She suffered from severed internal organs, including stomach and intestines," the expert said. "The cause of death is the abdominal internal bleeding but what made the child's death quicker is the brain injury."
The Jordanian defendant, O?A, 24, told the court that when she took the child to hospital, a doctor pushed strongly and violently on the girl's chest and body, implying that he caused the injuries.
But the expert said that such procedures could not cause the number of injuries Maya had.
The stepmother is accused of assaulting Maya and causing the internal bleeding that led to her death on January 30. She denies the charges. The husband, R?S, was out of the country on business at the time.
His other daughter, R?M, 10, and the family's former housemaid, E?E, 24, have testified that the stepmother regularly beat the children, Maya in particular because she most resembled her husband's former wife.
The next hearing is on June 29.
 
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