Mother accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter after leaving her with permanent brain damage appears in court
A woman accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter has appeared in court.
Sarah Ngaba, 30, was last week charged by West Mercia Police with the murder of Eliza Ngaba, who died at the Princess Royal hospital in Telford on August 15, 2022.
Appearing at Telford magistrates' court on Tuesday via video-link from the Derbyshire prison, Ngaba, formerly of Briarwood in Telford, Shropshire, sat behind a table with her arms crossed.
She was wearing a grey sweatshirt and flanked by a prison officer.
Ngaba spoke only to confirm she could hear proceedings and said: 'Thank you' after district judge Ian Barnes addressed her during the three-minute hearing.
Barnes referred the case to Stafford crown court, where Ngaba was told she would need to appear on Wednesday.
'It is a straightforward hearing for today's purposes,' he said.
'This is a matter that can only be dealt with by the crown court and, due to the nature of the charge, it has to go there within 48 hours.
'You will be remanded in custody to appear at Stafford crown court tomorrow.'
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BBC News
19 minutes ago
- BBC News
'Floodgates' opened on Long Lartin prison drones
A former prison officer at a high-security jail where a member of staff was recently stabbed by an inmate, has said the "floodgates" have been opened on the use of drones to smuggle in weapons and drugs. A 25-year-old prison officer was stabbed at Long Martin on 30 May and had to undergo emergency surgery. At the time, a source told the BBC the knife used was "not a prison-made weapon".A former officer at Long Lartin, who we are calling Adam, said the problem had got worse in recent years, with drones coming in "left, right, and centre".In response, the government said it had "inherited a prison system in crisis - overcrowded, with drugs and violence rife", but was addressing the problems. "We are gripping the situation and clamping down on illicit items through X-ray body scanners and restricted fly zones for drones, " a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said the extent of drone use had initially come as a surprise."We knew it could happen in city prisons without high funding, like Hewell and Birmingham, but not in high-security prisons," he said. "But the floodgates have opened.""We used to smell a bit of weed at night time - you'd identify the cell and put that person in for a drug test."But it got so bad, you could be walking up the corridors to the wings and it could stink of weed." The former prison officer said inmates would make their own weapons "out of anything", including melting down razor blades or sharpening tooth he said these makeshift weapons were not as dangerous as the knives that were being flown in.A spokesperson for the Prison Officers' Association (POA) told the BBC it had warned governments for some time "about the dangers posed by the use of drones to deliver contraband such as drugs, mobile phones, weapons into jails". "This is unquestionably increasing the risks to staff, and destabilising prisons," they added."Without action, it is only a matter of time until a firearm is delivered to a prison by drone." In a 2023 report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons, after an unannounced visit of Long Lartin in December 2022, an inspector said: "The prison had good defences against the ingress of drugs through drones or throwovers."However, by January 2025, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, called for "urgent action" to tackle drones at HMP Long Lartin and HMP Manchester following inspections in September and October 2025 Long Lartin report said: The risks are clear for a jail that has, in effect, ceded the airspace above it to serious organised crime." Fifty per cent of Long Lartin inmates who responded to a survey by the inspectorate also said it was easy to get drugs and alcohol, which the report said "was an astonishing rate for a Category A prison". Attacks on staff The 25-year-old prison officer who was attacked in May is now recovering at home after having emergency surgery, according to a social media post made by his who knows the victim, told the BBC: "He's a good kid - keen and enthusiastic. He's not an idiot, he's not mean and nasty."However, the attack on him is not an isolated incident.A Freedom of Information (FOI) request sent by the BBC to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed Long Lartin had 35 incidents over the past five years in which officers missed at least a week of work either following a physical assault or through an injury sustained while restraining an inmate. In 2022 alone, 13 incidents had to be reported by the prison to the HSE. This included an officer suffering burns after a prisoner threw boiling water over them, while another received an inch-deep puncture wound to the neck after visiting a prisoner's another case, an officer was "choked out of consciousness" by a prisoner after responding to an emergency one occasion, Adam said a senior governor had her jaw broken by an attacks took place in 2024, including an officer being knocked out after being punched in the head and kicked by a prisoner while supervising his move to a mentioned a number of factors to the BBC that he believed were making the environment more dangerous to said a full lockdown search of the jail had not been performed since the Covid pandemic, and that inmates could hide weapons in places guards would be unable to find during basic checks due to screwdrivers being flown into the prison - making it easier to hide contraband in furniture. Adam also claimed there were no thorough searches conducted after drones would be seen over the attacks did happen, Adam said there were rarely significant said staff had "very little faith" in the official adjudication process, intended to deal with such incidents involving inmates. 'The job's not worth it' Adam said the situation at Long Lartin had got "worse and worse" over the years, with staff not feeling safe at told the BBC that one governor even said "prisons aren't a place where you're supposed to feel safe" and that they would be surprised if staff at work felt safe. This response was made in reply to concerns about proposals to have just one uniformed officer in workshops with inmates, led by civilians."More and more experienced staff are saying the job's not worth it," Adam MOJ told the BBC: "We take the safety and wellbeing of staff extremely seriously."To further protect our hardworking staff, front-line prison officers working in the highest risk areas will be given protective body armour to keep them safe from harm."They also said the prison service was working with police to deter illegal drone use around prisons, and that they were investing targeted countermeasures such as improvements to windows, netting and grilles, to stop drones from successfully delivering cargo such as drugs and weapons. Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
35 minutes ago
- BBC News
Plymouth deaths show risks of lethal street drugs, charity says
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Posters, scented items and drones: Highland hunt for teenager's missing therapy dog
Walking along Nevis Gorge, the rumble of Steall Falls can be heard long before you see it. Rocky terrain clears to expansive grassland, forest and shrubbery. Among Glen Nevis's lush greenery, flashes of bright red paper can be seen. It is not litter left by tourists who have trekked to this beauty spot, but missing posters handed out by the family of Louie, a two-year-old golden retriever who has been missing for a fortnight. The breathtaking scenery is no longer noticed by Louie's owner, Louise Manson, and her two daughters Ellie and Lara. They have have been coming daily, sometimes several times a day, to search for their beloved dog. Louie has been on walks here regularly but on the day of his disappearance, Louise says he got spooked. 'We got to the top of the gorge and a family were there and the rain was pounding. You couldn't hear very much between the rain and the waterfall. 'The family was coming towards the car park and they had a toddler there screaming. I don't know if he got a scent of a deer but we looked down [at the lead and collar] and he was gone. 'My senses were in overdrive, for a dog it might have been a bit too much.' Louie's disappearance has been particularly difficult for 17-year-old Ellie as he provides support as a therapy dog for the teenager. Ellie has epilepsy and while Louie was originally brought into the family as a companion for her, he started to alert family members when Ellie was about to have a seizure. 'If I have a seizure he will lie in my bed across my chest or on my stomach to let me know that he's there. He'll alert someone if anything's going to happen, he can sense it. He will bang around to get anyone's attention,' she says. 'It's hard. It's odd walking into the house and he's not there.' Ellie hasn't been able to face coming to many of the searches for Louie, 'I can't really deal with the disappointment of not finding him,' she said. Louise, and Ellie's 12-year-old sister, Lara, have been doing most of the searching with help from the local community. 'If I'm not out searching I'm at home researching what I need and what to do and talking to people. People have been so generous lending us equipment. Honestly, I don't think I would have gotten through it without anybody's help.' Word has travelled around Steall Falls as while they are out searching, a walker approaches Louise to ask if she is 'Louie's mum'; she has heard the story and wants to extend her sympathy. The support has been overwhelming, she says. 'I put one post on Facebook the night he went missing and by the time I came back up here there were locals already out looking for him. Since then it's just grown.' Many of the posters stuck to trees around the area were new to Louise. She said a neighbour had been out putting them up. Volunteers have also been out searching with drones but have so far notfound anything. Another volunteer has also offered a thermal drone to try to find Louie over the weekend. It's not an easy route to search. Much of the path involves climbing over rocky terrain and the occasional trickles of water from the mountain above to the gorge below. To get to the bottom of Steall Falls, the family either wade through the shallow river or walk the tightrope chain-bridge hoping Louie will be able to pick up their scent. They were starting to lose hope after a week and a half of no sightings but last weekend a sniffer dog picked up his scent after smelling Louie's blanket. Hopes have been raised further as searchers heard barking on early Thursday morning echoing through the valley. 'I think he's gone into survival mode,' Louise says, 'When he realised nobody was here he's taken off and started fending for himself … until he gets my scent he won't come anywhere near me. Once he gets my scent and he comes closer to me apparently he will just snap out of it.' Armed with dirty clothes covered with her scent, Louise is planning to camp out at Glen Nevis this weekend close to where Louie went missing to try to lure him back. 'He's got to be somewhere,' she says. 'When he turns up it'll be amazing.'
