A COUPLE who inflicted a catalogue of injuries on their baby tried to cover it up by swapping identities with her twin, a court heard.

Nafisa and Mohammed Karolia, from Meadow Close, Audley, Blackburn, hid their seven-month-old daughter from health visitors until her death in June 2009, a jury was told.

Instead they presented her unharned identical sibling 'Twin A' to social workers as 'Twin M', swapped certificates and made up excuses as to why the other baby wasn't at home, the court heard.

The child,'Twin M', died of bronchopneumonia. A post mortem examination revealed more than 20 separate injuries including seven fractures, brain bleeds and facial bruising.

Prosecutor Joe Boyd said parents Nafisa, 22, and taxi driver Mohammed, 29, 'wilfully' inflicted the injuries and that it would have been 'impossible not to notice them'.

He said: “The inescapable conclusion is that her parents should have been responsible for her well-being, but sadly they became responsible for her abuse.

“The sheer number of injuries, the number of different and separate incidents there must have been to cause them, the time-scale from months to hours before death in which they were caused and the lack of any plausible explanation from the parents as to how they were caused, leads inexplicably to the conclusion that they were inflicted deliberately by one or both of the parents.

“All the further evidence provides compelling truth that the parents were both fully aware of what was happening and trying to conceal it. Both are equally culpable.”

The court was told that at 7.30am on June 15, Mohammed Karolia noticed Twin M was struggling to breath in her cot. They called 999 and when paramedics arrived it was clear the baby girl was already dead.

No injuries were immediately apparent and the cause of death was established as a lung infection.

But experts later discovered Twin M had sustained a fractured rib six weeks earlier, probably from squeezing, a more recent fractured left leg and within 24 hours of death, a fractured right upper arm, left upper leg, lower leg, right tibia and fibia, all likely to have been caused by twisting, shaking or rotating, the court heard.

There was bleeding to the eyes, eye socket, abrasions to corneas, scratches to her ears, two brain bleeds possibly caused by sudden physical force and blood in the spinal column.

There was also several head and body bruises, mouth ulcer and a 'highly visible' nose injury probably caused by a 'clip or clasp' pinching the baby's nose.

Mr Boyd said the crown could not say the injuries caused the baby's death, but that the parents were guilty of child cruelty through a 'battery of non-accidental injuries'.

He said: “In May and early June 2009 there was a deliberate attempt by the parents to conceal the ailing twin from the outside world. Most probably this was because she was exhibiting signs of ill-treatment – such as brain injury.”

Imaginary trips to grandparents' and the zoo were used as excuses to social workers.

Mr Boyd told the court: “Both parents were making a concerted effort to keep Twin M out of the way of the nurse and the social worker – so that they would not suspect the ill-treatment she was suffering.”

Preston Crown Court also heard during Mr Boyd's opening that following the Lancashire Telegraph's report of the inquest into Twin M's death, in April 2010, neighbours of the Karolias came forward.

They told police that they had only ever seen the parents with one of the twins and one resident reported hearing frequent 'female screaming episodes' from early 2009.

The neighbour said there was nothing to indicate Nafisa – who was doing a childhood studies course – had given birth to two babies.

Both defendants have pleaded not guilty to a count of child cruelty and an alternative count of child neglect. They will challenge much of the medical evidence, Mr Boyd said. The trial will last between six to eight weeks.

(Proceeding )