Sofina Nikhat admits killing baby daughter in Melbourne | NZ FIJI TIMES

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Updated: 8:05am – Sofina Nikhat mother of Sanaya Sahib has admitted to smothering her 15-month-old daughter and throwing her body in a Melbourne creek in Australia.

7News Australia reports 24-year old Sofina Nikat yesterday pleaded guilty to infanticide over the death of Sanaya Sahib in 2016.

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Sofina Nikat took the infant to a park on April 9 last year and played with her before covering her airways until the child stopped moving.

She then rolled her body into the creek.

The Fijian-born woman was originally charged with murder but prosecutors earlier in September accepted Nikat had been suffering from a depressive illness at the time Sanaya was killed.

The maximum penalty for infanticide is five years’ imprisonment.

After killing Sanaya, Nikat walked back to the home of a relative and said a man had snatched the girl.

Nikat told police a barefoot man of African appearance who smelt of alcohol had snatched Sanaya from her pram.

Police initiated a search with help from the public.

 

A family who had joined the search found Sanaya’s submerged body in the creek in the early hours of the next day.

Nikat continued to say someone had snatched her baby before admitting what she did a week after the killing.

She thought her baby was possessed.

The prosecutor said a psychologist has found Nikat was suffering from a depressive illness as a consequence of giving birth to Sanaya in January 2015.
The plea hearing continues.”

-FBC

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