{"id":445279,"date":"2026-05-26T02:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T02:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/445279\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T02:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T02:28:10","slug":"mukzameel-ali-jailed-for-six-years-for-death-of-infant-son-mustafa-in-te-kuiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/445279\/","title":{"rendered":"Mukzameel Ali jailed for six years for death of infant son Mustafa in Te Kuiti"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe loss of my son is something I will carry for the rest of my life,\u201d Law said, fighting back tears, as she was supported in the High Court at Hamilton<\/a> by her mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmotionally, this has left me with overwhelming grief and deep sadness … and struggle with the reality that my child is no longer here<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali was someone, at the time, she trusted to leave her son with, and the pain of her loss was at times unbearable.<\/p>\n

She had since chosen to forgive Ali, but only \u201cbecause my faith teaches me to do so and God calls me to forgive\u201d.<\/p>\n

Law, a Christian, urged the judge to hand down a sentence that not only reflected the seriousness of what happened but also acted as a deterrent to others.<\/p>\n

Ali, who remained emotionless throughout the 90-minute hearing, was set to defend the charges, but on the eve of his trial in February this year pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter, along with two charges relating to assaults on his partner between February 2023 and June 2024. <\/p>\n

\u2018Terminate the baby\u2019<\/p>\n

Ali didn\u2019t want a child.<\/p>\n

After learning of his new partner\u2019s pregnancy in January 2023, he \u201cimmediately expressed concern\u201d and encouraged her to terminate it.<\/p>\n

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

Ali 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 \u201crepeatedly\u201d 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

She didn\u2019t 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\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n

Their relationship remained \u201cvolatile\u201d and, on several occasions, Ali pushed or punched her.<\/p>\n

\u2018Stressed and angry\u2019<\/p>\n

On June 8, 2024, Law woke to their 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 the child sleeping with Ali at 10.50am.<\/p>\n

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

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

\"MukzameelMukzameel Ali, 24, in the dock of the High Court at Hamilton this morning. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n

Some time after his partner left, Ali fed Mustafa a bottle and some Weet-Bix. 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 \u201cstressed and angry\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was during this time that Ali caused the fatal injury through a violent blow to his abdomen.<\/p>\n

At 2.16pm, his partner returned and was met at the front door of the house by Ali holding Mustafa in his arms. The toddler was \u201cfloppy and cold to the touch\u201d.<\/p>\n

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

Mustafa was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. He 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\u2019s 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

\"MukzameelMukzameel Ali holding his son, Mustafa. Photo \/ Supplied<\/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 less.<\/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 Weet-Bix would have caused him \u201csignificant discomfort\u201d.<\/p>\n

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

\u2018He was trying to help, initially, at least\u2019<\/p>\n

Ali\u2019s counsel, Rosalind Brown, said that although her client didn\u2019t admit fault until the eve of the trial, she urged the judge to still grant a 20% to 25% discount for a guilty plea.<\/p>\n

She said Ali wanted to plead as early as December 2025 but, due to a miscommunication with the Crown, that didn\u2019t happen until earlier in the new year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis situation is a tragedy. There\u2019s no getting away from that,\u201d she said, \u201cand Mr Ali accepts responsibility for his actions, which led to that tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Ali did lacked the maturity or life skills to deal with the situation he was in. <\/p>\n

\"AA mourner holds Mustafa Ali’s photo during his funeral at the St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Te Kuiti on June 13, 2024. Photo \/ Mike Scott <\/p>\n

On that day, he had been trying to feed his son and \u201cinitially at least\u201d was trying to save him, but then accepted \u201cfrustration took over, and he inflicted a significant blow to his abdomen\u201d.<\/p>\n

She also suggested that it could be inferred that when Law returned home, Ali was in fact leaving to seek medical help. <\/p>\n

While Mustafa\u2019s death could have taken between 30 and 90 minutes, expert evidence concluded it could have occurred more quickly, she said.<\/p>\n

The incident was also a \u201cone-off\u201d, and Brown pushed for a starting point of between five and six years\u2019 jail, along with credits for his youth, rehabilitation attempts, remorse, previous good character, and time on electronically monitored bail.<\/p>\n

\u2018This was extreme violence\u2019<\/p>\n

Crown Solicitor Jacinda Hamilton said Ali \u201cstill has a long way to go\u201d in terms of accepting responsibility, \u201clet alone being in a position to act with any truly remorseful conduct\u201d.<\/p>\n

He still minimised his actions and was in denial about the motivation for the offending.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis severe and debilitating injury was caused in anger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt reflected a loss of temper, and it was extreme violence against an infant, the most vulnerable in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the nature of the fatal blow could be described as \u201cvicious and gratuitous\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018Fortunate to escape a conviction for murder\u2019<\/p>\n

Judge Harvey largely agreed with the Crown, except when it came to giving a discount for Ali\u2019s attempts at rehabilitation after spending 14 months at the Grace Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe steps you have taken to date are commendable and should be encouraged.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, in deciding the starting point, Justice Harvey said Mustafa would have been in \u201cconsiderable pain and distress before dying\u201d.<\/p>\n

Given expert evidence that his fatal injury couldn\u2019t have been caused by incorrectly administered CPR, as suggested by the defence, the judge said, given that, Ali was \u201cfortunate to escape a conviction for murder\u201d.<\/p>\n

After taking an overall starting point of nine years and 10 months, he allowed 35% in discounts, along with five months for his time on electronically monitored bail.<\/p>\n

Judge Harvey jailed Ali for six years.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe loss of my son is something I will carry for the rest of my life,\u201d Law said,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[62031,6794,93715,634,2209,2082,4532,10046,42,78,12518,14641,3375,227199,6178,163865,147486,43,1118,28441,10715,312,4739,22639,8690,40,38,41,39,119120,1530,4741],"class_list":["post-445279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-ali","tag-baby","tag-consumed","tag-death","tag-father","tag-for","tag-grief","tag-hands","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-infant","tag-jailed","tag-killed","tag-kuiti","tag-mother","tag-mukzameel","tag-mustafa","tag-news","tag-of","tag-overwhelming","tag-remains","tag-says","tag-six","tag-son","tag-te","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-violently","tag-years","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445279","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=445279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}