A mute and autistic four-year-old boy starved to death after clinging to his mother's rotting corpse for two weeks in their London flat. Chadrack Mbala Mulo was unable to call for help when his mother Esther died following an epileptic fit at their Hackney home in October.
Neighbours reported smelling a foul odour but assumed it was Congolese cooking from the family's flat. One neighbour said: 'It has haunted me for a long time, that I could have helped, and I didn't know. Chadrack needed feeding and watering. He passed away because he was hungry, not because something happened to him.'
Staff at Morningside Primary School had tried to contact the mother and visited the family home twice but could not gain access to the block of flats. The coroner, Mary Hassel, stated: 'The likelihood is that Chadrack lived alone in the family home for over a fortnight after his mother's death. He was found a couple of days after his own death, with his arms around her body. She was by then very decomposed.'
Headteacher Janet Taylor said: 'Chadrack's tragic death has devastated all those who knew him at our school. We will remember him as a happy little boy and the circumstances of his death are heartbreaking.'
