Mother, 31, who banged her baby’s head repeatedly on the floor in ‘sudden fit of rage’ is jailed for murder

The mother who killed her two-month-old baby in a “sudden fit of anger” was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Zara Arsalan, 31, violently shook Harleen Bains and repeatedly banged her head on the table after she ‘lost her temper’ with the defenseless baby at their Black Country home on July 23, 2020.

The attack lasted just a few seconds and left Harleen with “catastrophic injuries” including a fractured skull and brain damage.

But Arsalan, also known as Sharandeep Talwandi, tried to convince detectives that his daughter’s death was merely a ‘tragic accident’.

He was found guilty of murder and this week sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 19 years.

Sentencing at Coventry Crown Court on Thursday, Judge Cavanagh KC said ‘little’ Harleen ‘should have a long and happy life ahead of her’.

‘It is a tragedy that a child dies at such a young age,’ he said. ‘I am sure (Arsalan) that you did not intend to harm Harleen until the moment you did this. You acted in sudden anger.

‘The violence was very intense. Even though it was small, the pain and fear that Harleen would experience would be truly terrible.

‘In this case, you not only shook Harleen with excessive force, but also struck her head against a hard surface with great force several times.

‘No one could do this to a small and fragile baby without appreciating the real possibility that this could cause not only injury but death.

‘So I’m sure you don’t care whether you kill him or not.’

Arsalan is heard to be living at a property in West Bromwich, near Birmingham, with his daughter and Harleen’s father Jatinder Bains.

But Arsalan and Mr Bains’ relationship had become ‘stormy’ in the weeks before the baby’s death – nearly two years after they first met.

Three to six days before her death, Harleen suffered a rib fracture due to her mother’s “rough handling” during a loss of temper.

It was stated that Arsalan saw motherhood as a ‘struggle’ but had a ‘good mother-baby bond’.

The judge added: ‘Harleen would scream or cry loudly for a few minutes after you did this to her, so you realized you had hurt her.

‘At that stage you knew you were at risk of harming Harleen but you did not seek help or support.’

Mr Bains called 999 minutes after his baby was injured at Arsalan’s hands on July 23.

Harleen died the next day from brain damage that caused ‘devastating and irreversible damage’. He also suffered multiple blunt force trauma to his head, a broken collarbone, a broken left leg and an injury to his spine.

Medical evidence showed he was being held ‘very tightly and roughly’, causing his head and neck to ‘sway’.

The court heard this would be ‘well outside the normal range of use’.

His Honor Judge Cavanagh KC said: ‘The person who did this had no doubt that he would cause injury to his child.’

The judge added that Harleen’s head hit the ground “very hard” “three or four times”. The level of force used would have been ‘extraordinarily severe’.

His Honor Judge Cavanagh KC said he believed the trigger for the violence was ‘Harleen not stopping crying’ and Arsalan being ‘tired and stressed’.

The judge added: ‘It is absolutely clear that you lost your temper with him.’

The court heard Mr Bains, 31, died by suicide in August 2022.

Arsalan, who was 25 years old when Harleen died and had no previous criminal record, gave “contradictory and unrealistic” statements to the police about what happened to his daughter.

In 2020, he claimed that Harleen ‘wiggled’ out of his arms while she was changing and fell to the ground.

He lied again when interviewed in 2022 after hearing of Mr Bains’ death, insisting Mr Bains had attacked both him and Harleen.

His Honor Judge Cavanagh KC said: ‘This was a false narrative designed to shift blame onto Mr Bains.’

He continued: ‘There is no suggestion that Arsalan and Mr Bains were jointly responsible for the attack on Harleen.’