A woman who deliberately poisoned a toddler with insulin while the youngster was being treated in hospital is set to escape justice after she fled back to Saudi Arabia.

Amal Asiri, 29, repeatedly injected the child with the medication at the Evelina Children's Hospital, part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.

Asiri and her husband Mohammed Asiri, 38, were last seen by staff at the Saudi Arabian Embassy on 27 September and failed to turn up for trial at the Old Bailey three days later.

Police officers went to their home in Kensington, southwest London, entered the flat and found a Global Travel Invoice in bin with a 'Do not disturb' sign on the front door.

The Saudi Arabian Embassy was contacted but officials told investigators they had made no application to travel.

The couple's defence had been paid for by the Saudi authorities.

Judge Mark Lucraft, QC, issued a warrant for their arrest on September 30 but it emerged their luggage had been marked for delivery to the Middle East.

Mr Asiri was seen on CCTV carrying four suitcases out of the flat and handing them to a courier booked by Global Travel on 23 September.

The judge, who had banned publication of any details about the couple fleeing the country until the end of the trial, said before the case began:

"In my judgment they have taken deliberate steps to return their belongings to Saudi Arabia.

"Although I am told they are of limited means and reliant on support from the embassy in the period they have been in London, they have taken the clear decision not to attend their trial and that must have been done with a clear view to go somewhere.

(Image: central news)

"They appear to have no ties and all of their ties lie elsewhere."

Ruling that the trial be held in the absence of the Asiris the judge added: 'The prospect of an extradition within a reasonable time, or at all, is remote. There is no extradition treaty between the UK and Saudi Arabia.'

Amal was convicted of administering a poison or noxious substance so as to endanger life and a further charge of child cruelty by 'wilfully ill treating the child in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering'.

Mohammed was cleared of the child cruelty charge.

Judge Lucraft adjourned sentence until 4 November but the reality is the pair are unlikely to set foot in the UK again.

The youngster had been flown to London from overseas in a private air ambulance to be treated for ongoing feeding problems, the court heard.

Doctors managed to provide food through a drip until the child reached a stable condition and was flown home on 6 September 2017.

But the child was returned to the Savannah ward at the Evelina Hospital on 13 February 2018.

Over the next four weeks the youngster was repeatedly injected with insulin.

Alarmed by the child's plummeting blood sugar levels, doctors discovered the cause to be insulin injection despite the child not being diabetic or having any need for the drug.

"The effect of the insulin was to reduce her blood sugar levels to dangerously low levels," said Sarah Whitehouse QC, prosecuting.

"If a person stops eating for any length of time their blood sugar levels become very low."

Ms Whitehouse said the couple 'had access to insulin, they knew how and when to use it, and they knew what its effects were.'

Mrs Asiri pestered staff to check the child's blood sugar levels after poisoning them which led doctors to discover the child was hypoglycaemic.

(Image: central news)

"Asiri seemed to know the child's blood sugar levels had dropped and one explanation for this is that she was causing it to happen by injecting," Ms Whitehouse added.

Asiri drew the curtains of the child's private cubicle after attempting to tamper secretively with their medication, the court heard.

Dr Helen Mundy became suspicious of the 'erratic' fluctuations in blood sugar and sent samples to be tested in a hospital laboratory after a series of hypoglycemic attacks between 14 February 2018 to 21 February 2018.

The youngster's blood sugar levels were maintained with glucose through a drip until Dr Mundy spotted their tube had been detached on 4 March, jurors heard.

Medical staff then braced themselves for another crash in blood sugar levels but were shocked when further tests revealed the levels remained the same.

Ms Whitehouse said: 'Dr Mundy was becoming concerned that the cause of these erratic blood sugar levels was an excess of insulin.

"Dr Mundy could not be sure however whether this excess was being caused by abnormal insulin levels produced by the child themselves or whether it was being administered from outside by someone injecting them.

"The tube became disconnected and nobody could say for how long it had been disconnected for.

"What's significant about it is despite the fact that the child was out of glucose their blood sugar levels had not plummeted.

"On every previous occasion when staff reduced the child's intravenous glucose by even a small amount, the blood sugar levels dropped sharply.

"Yet on this occasion that did not happen.

"Mrs Asiri arrived back a few minutes later and immediately tried to draw the curtains to the child's cubicle.



"She was asked not to do so."

Police searched the hospital bed followed by the couple's apartment after they were arrested on 9 March 2018.

Officers uncovered a black handbag stuffed with insulin needles with the child's DNA on the tip of one.

Four boxes of insulin pens were then found hidden in the fridge at their flat.

The pair denied any wrongdoing in police interviews and Mrs Asiri claimed she had simply forgotten to empty her bag of the needles.

Mr Asiri admitted he understood how insulin impacted blood sugar but claimed a nurse was responsible for the dangerous injections.

"He said that he understood how dangerous it was when blood sugars dropped but he had not interfered with the child's condition," said Ms Whitehouse.

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Mrs Asiri, formerly of Kensington, denied but was convicted of one charge of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 while her husband was cleared of the charge.

Amal Asiri alone also denied but was convicted of administering a poison or noxious substance to a child, so as to endanger life.