Liliya Breha says probation services did not warn her about partner who killed her son

The mother of a five-year-old boy who was murdered by her partner after probation services failed to warn her about his convictions for violent offences has told an inquest of her devastation over the loss of her “perfect” son.

At the opening of the inquest into the death of Alex Malcolm at Southwark coroner’s court on Monday, Liliya Breha said she had known that Marvyn Iheanacho had been in prison for several months but not the offences he had committed.

She said probation officers did not warn her about his violent history or that he was not allowed to have unsupervised access to children under 16.

“When I asked him what he had been inside for, he said he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Breha told the court.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Marvyn Iheanacho. Photograph: Metropolitan police/PA

Iheanacho attacked Alex after the boy lost one of his trainers in a park in Catford, south London, in November 2016. Alex died two days later. The inquest heard that the two causes of death were a head injury and a blunt force trauma to the abdomen.

Iheanacho’s previous offences included breaking the jaw of one former partner and grabbing another by the throat. He went on to a dating site targeting single women with children. Breha said until the day he attacked Alex she had no idea Ilheanacho was violent.

“There’s no way I would have been in a relationship with Marvyn if I had known about his history of violence against women and children,” she told the jury. “He was really fake and manipulative. He was just lying.”

She said that although he was not violent to her or Alex before the fatal attack, she believed Alex was scared of him. She said he cultivated the “fear factor” in his treatment of Alex. “I don’t think he was very nice to Alex behind his back,” she said.

Iheanacho sometimes used Breha’s phone to call his probation officer, and Breha even spoke to the probation officer herself, but she said she received no warning about how dangerous he was or about the conditions attached to his release.

She told the court that on occasions she heard Iheanacho laughing and joking on the phone with the officer.

In a tribute to her son read out to the jury by the coroner, Breha wrote: “There’s no tragedy in life like the death of a child. He was a beautiful five-year-old. He was funny. I miss hearing his voice so much. I miss his cute smile. He was my world and my best friend too. We did everything together. I’m so angry he was taken away from me. Everyone loved Alex. He was caring, kind and loving and a very sharing child. He was perfect.”

Liliya Breha with Alex. Photograph: Liliya Breha

Iheanacho was convicted of Alex’s murder in 2017 and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 18 years.

The inquest continues.