A “sadistic” Iraqi refugee who tied up, gagged, and forced an unknown object into the mouth of a child as part of a sick “game” has been jailed.
Abdullah Belal, 31, from Wednesbury, was filmed “swaddling” the child in a blanket, rendering them immobile – but he later claimed that he had only been playing a game, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
A 48-second video of the ordeal showed the child “effectively being suffocated” and left “unable to move”, said prosecutor Laurie Scott.
Scott continued: “The child is clearly and visibly distressed, but the defendant carried on regardless… The video shows disregard for the wellbeing and safety of the child.”
Belal was found guilty of child cruelty at Wolverhampton Crown Court
Police were called after the video of Belal “torturing” the child emerged – after he was arrested, he claimed he was “swaddling” the child as part of a “game”.
Belal insisted the object was “not being forced” into the child’s mouth, claiming they “enjoyed being swaddled in that way”.
Sally Cairns, representing Belal, said the defendant had suffered “traumatic events” as a teenager, when his father and brother were killed in a bombing during the Iraq war in 2007.
Cairns said he carries “mental and physical scars” and had been hospitalised by the bombing, which she called a “tragic incident”.
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Belal, now 31, fled the Iraq War as a 15-year-old, where he suffered "traumatic events"
PA
Belal has an “overwhelming fear” of custody, and already had three convictions for five other offences, a court heard – but these were not of a similar nature, and did not involve children.
Judge Jackson, sentencing, said the “deliberate act” was “gratuitous degradation”.
He said: “You were filmed having tied up a child in a blanket so that they could not move… They were plainly distressed by that… You then tried to force something into their mouth.”
“It may have been a piece of some sort of material, it may have been something rather more solid… When that object was in their mouth, you tied a gag around their head and mouth.
“You tried to claim that this was not child cruelty, claiming that you were playing a game with the child.
“In spite of your conviction for child cruelty, you seem to have no insight into the seriousness of your offending, and there has been nothing like a realistic expression of remorse following your conviction.”
Belal, who has been in the UK for 16 years, but required an Arabic interpreter in court, was convicted of child cruelty for offences taking place from November 2019 to December 2020.
He was handed a three-year prison sentence, and a 10-year restraining order.