{"id":298299,"date":"2026-02-23T15:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T15:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/298299\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T15:37:16","slug":"te-kuiti-baby-death-mukzameel-ali-admits-killing-10-month-old-mustafa-ali-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/298299\/","title":{"rendered":"Te K\u016biti baby death: Mukzameel Ali admits killing 10-month-old Mustafa Ali"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published on \"NZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mukzameel<\/p>\n

\nMukzameel Mukhzar Ali pictured holding his baby Mustafa Mahir Ali, whom he admitted killing in their Te K\u016biti home.
\nPhoto: SUPPLIED\n<\/p>\n

Warning: This story contains details that some may find disturbing.<\/p>\n

Mukzameel Mukhzar Ali never wanted a child.<\/p>\n

After finding out that his partner had not terminated her pregnancy, he pushed her on their bed and jumped on her abdomen with his knees.<\/p>\n

Nine-and-a-half months after the child was born, Ali killed his son, using such force that he lacerated the baby’s liver and his large bowel in two locations.<\/p>\n

Today the 24-year-old appeared in the High Court at Hamilton, where he admitted killing his son in Te K\u016biti<\/a> on June 8, 2024.<\/p>\n

\"Hamilton<\/p>\n

\nMukzameel Ali admitted killing his son at the High Court at Hamilton. (File photo)
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Cole Eastham-Farrelly\n<\/p>\n

He was set to go on trial defending charges of Mustafa’s murder and two assault charges against his partner.<\/p>\n

However, he today pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter, assault with intent to injure between February 1, 2023, and May 31, 2023, and assaulting a person in a family relationship between June 2023 and June 2024.<\/p>\n

Justice Layne Harvey convicted Ali, who didn’t pursue name suppression on Monday.<\/p>\n

A sentencing date will be set shortly.<\/p>\n

‘Terminate the baby’<\/p>\n

Court documents reveal Ali didn’t want his son to be born.<\/p>\n

After learning of his new partner’s pregnancy in January 2023, he “immediately expressed concern” and encouraged her to terminate it.<\/p>\n

However, the partner wanted the baby, and, initially, misled Ali, believing that she had miscarried.<\/p>\n

Ali later became aware that she was still pregnant some months later, after finding a photo of her pregnancy scan, which she had hidden from him.<\/p>\n

The pair argued, and Ali slapped her about the face “repeatedly” before pushing her down on the bed, placing his hands on her upper chest and around her neck.<\/p>\n

He then jumped on top of her with his knees on her abdomen.<\/p>\n

The victim didn’t require hospitalisation, and her unborn baby was not harmed.<\/p>\n

The couple married in mid-July 2023, after meeting in September 2022, shortly before their son’s birth.<\/p>\n

Their relationship remained “volatile” and on several occasions, Ali pushed or punched her.<\/p>\n

‘Floppy and cold to the touch’<\/p>\n

On June 8, 2024, his partner woke to her son crying at 6am. She settled him in bed between her and Ali and went back to sleep.<\/p>\n

She got up at 8am, leaving her son sleeping with Ali at 10.50am.<\/p>\n

She asked Ali to give their son a bath and feed him in advance of family celebrations later that afternoon.<\/p>\n

Mustafa had been unwell during the days prior, with a high temperature.<\/p>\n

Sometime after his partner left, Ali fed Mustafa a bottle and some Weetbix.<\/p>\n

The baby vomited and was unsettled.<\/p>\n

Ali tried to feed him again later in the morning, unsuccessfully.<\/p>\n

Frustrated, Ali attempted to force-feed Mustafa his bottle, causing prominent bruises to his chin.<\/p>\n

Unable to feed or settle him, Ali became “stressed and angry”.<\/p>\n

During this time, Ali caused a fatal injury through a violent blow to his abdomen.<\/p>\n

At 2.16pm, his partner returned to him and was met at the front door of the house by Ali holding Mustafa in his arms.<\/p>\n

The toddler was “floppy and cold to the touch”.<\/p>\n

His partner grabbed her son and ran outside for help before the couple drove directly to Te K\u016biti Hospital.<\/p>\n

He was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.<\/p>\n

Mustafa died as a result of a crushing injury to his abdomen, lacerating his liver and the wall of his large bowel in two locations.<\/p>\n

There was also bruising to his diaphragm, small bowel mesentery, and the back of his abdominal wall.<\/p>\n

The injury to Mustafa’s liver was so severe that the bleeding into his abdomen would have started immediately after the injury was inflicted and continued uninterrupted until he died.<\/p>\n

Court documents state that, given the extent of his injury, it was unlikely that Mustafa would have survived longer than 30 to 60 minutes, possibly sooner.<\/p>\n

When initially spoken to by police, Ali said his son began to choke while feeding him, and the injury was likely caused by his subsequent attempt to perform CPR.<\/p>\n

A post-mortem found that Mustafa had abscesses around either side of his larynx, and it was likely that eating Weetbix would have caused him “significant discomfort”.<\/p>\n

He also had bruising behind each of his ears and a large bruise on top of his head.<\/p>\n

The force required to cause Mustafa’s internal injury was not consistent with CPR procedures.<\/p>\n

‘He was a happy and adorable boy’<\/p>\n

Mourners farewelled the baby at a funeral at a Christian church on June 13, where hymns were sung, and garlands of white and blue balloons hung around the entrance.<\/p>\n

Mustafa’s picture also shone out from a banner on display.<\/p>\n

About 100 people attended the service, many wearing T-shirts printed with Mustafa’s face.<\/p>\n

His funeral followed a private service for the family.<\/p>\n

Mustafa’s mum later broke her silence, saying her son was a “happy and adorable boy”.<\/p>\n

* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First published on Mukzameel Mukhzar Ali pictured holding his baby Mustafa Mahir Ali, whom he admitted killing in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-298299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}