‘If I’m guilty, I’m guilty’: What a father who admitted killing his son told a journalist

Source: Radio New Zealand

Nearly two years before Mukzameel Ali pleaded guilty to killing his son, he spoke to RNZ national crime correspondent Sam Sherwood on several occasions, with his explanation about what happened.

“If I’m guilty, I’m guilty…”

It was 12 June 2024, four days after Mukzameel Ali’s nine and a half month old son had died from what police had called non-accidental blunt-force trauma.

Then working at Stuff, I had spoken to Ali on two occasions since his son’s death. He had strongly denied being responsible.

In my first conversation he told me: “I didn’t do anything wrong, because I was trying to save my son. He was my son, I loved him so much. I was trying my best.”

It was during my third call that he told me his efforts to give his son CPR may have caused injuries that led to his death, but said it “wasn’t intentional”.

He said he was “worried” about what might happen to him and was “angry” about what he did.

“Because I didn’t do that on purpose, but if that would’ve resulted in that then – I feel very bad.”

Two days later Ali was charged with murdering his son, and on Monday he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.

It was revealed the little boy died as a result of blunt force trauma resulting in a crushing injury to the abdomen.

Possible causes included a punch, kick or stomp and the nature of the injury was such that he would’ve been crying and in obvious discomfort until ultimately losing consciousness. He would not have survived longer than 30 to 60 minutes after the blow.

With his guilty plea, I look back at my interviews with Ali, his explanations and what actually happened that day.

‘I didn’t do anything wrong’

Two days after Mustafa Ali’s death, I was on the phone to his father Mukzameel Ali.

It was 10 June, and I was covering the baby’s death for Stuff.

A day earlier Detective Inspector Graham Pikethley had issued a media release about the death of a 10-month-old in Te Kuiti. The little boy had been brought unconscious to Te Kuiti Hospital, where staff alerted police.

“Tragically, despite the best efforts of medical personnel, he was unable to be resuscitated,” Pikethley said.

“An initial examination showed the baby boy suffered violent, blunt-force trauma. We believe these injuries were not accidental.”

A homicide investigation was under way and police had been speaking to family members including the boy’s parents.

“They are working with us as we establish what occurred in this young child’s life and how he came to be so badly injured.”

After hearing of the case, I began searching on social media and saw a post on Facebook naming the victim as Mustafa Ali. I then found his family and messaged his parents.

I did some further investigating and spoke to one of Mukzameel Ali’s colleagues. The colleague said Ali was staying with him and I could call back.

About an hour later I was on the phone to Ali, then aged 21.

At the beginning of the interview, he told me that he had recently been in Fiji and when he got home he noticed his son had been unwell. He said they took him to the doctors and he was given some antibiotics.

He told me that on the day of Mustafa’s death, he was home alone with his son as his wife was out at a birthday party.

While Mustafa was in his care, he said he still was not feeling well. He gave him some Weetbix, but he did not eat much.

“Then after that, I gave him the bottle of milk that was left over to finish up and he was sitting down in the ballpit. I put him down there and he was watching TV, but he was still looking dizzy and sad,” he told me.

He said he continued doing chores around the house.

“I came (in) and he (Mustafa) was almost like sleepy. He was sitting down but his head was going down so I made him another bottle of milk and tried to feed him.

“Maybe he drank almost half a bottle and then he vomited all of it out suddenly.”

He said he began taking his son’s clothes off due to the vomit.

“He was not good. His eyes became very big and he was like choking up or something. He wouldn’t breathe and I got shocked, and I got nervous, I was scared.

“I don’t know what to do because I was alone, home by myself and that’s my first time having an encounter that… nothing came up in my mind, my mind was all empty. “

He told me he began “tapping” on his son’s bum and back to see if he could get a reaction from his son.

“I tried to give him CPR… still didn’t respond and I just lifted him up and ran straight to the hospital. And lucky that’s when my wife arrived, so I gave Mustafa to her. I told her ‘he choked, something’s blocking, he cannot breathe, let’s just hurry up and take him the hospital’.”

He told me that staff at the hospital gave him oxygen when they arrived, but they were unable to save him.

During the interview I asked him what police had told him so far. He claimed police said Mustafa died from internal bleeding from his liver. I said police had stated he died from blunt force trauma, but Ali said he did not know how that had been caused, and suggested someone else may have done something to him earlier.

I also asked Ali if his son had previously been injured. He told me there had been an incident where while holding Mustafa he had fallen down some stairs. He said Mustafa suffered a collarbone fracture, fractured ribs as well as bleeding on his head.

He said Oranga Tamariki were involved and Mustafa stayed with his grandparents for several months before coming back to live with his parents.

I asked Ali if he was worried he could be charged in relation to his son’s death.

“Maybe because I am the only one who was there at the moment and I am maybe the one who caused him like to suffer all that. Maybe because I did it in the wrong way,” he told Stuff.

“I don’t feel good. I feel scared because nothing came up in my mind.”

During the interview he denied being responsible for his son’s death.

“I didn’t do anything wrong, because I was trying to save my son. He was my son, I loved him so much. I was trying my best.”

The following day police held a press conference. During the conference police were asked about Ali’s comments to me.

Police said they were aware of the comments, but that there were some “inconsistencies” from people associated with Mustafa and what police believed caused the injuries.

I wanted to clarify the inconsistencies so I called Ali again.

I brought up with him what police had said and asked for his response. He told me he had not told the police the full story, and that he had “missed some of the things”.

“I was not feeling good, like nothing was coming in my mind,” he said.

“I was not thinking right straight away because just after what happened they took us to give our statement, so I was not in the right stage to give statement so that’s why some of the part has missed out.”

I was confused as to what he was referring to, and asked further questions but he would not go into specifics but said he wanted to speak to police “straight away”.

‘If I’m guilty, I’m guilty’

On 12 June, I called Ali for a third time.

I asked him about the blunt force trauma police said had been inflicted on his son on the day of his death.

“The only thing I was doing like I was trying my best to save my son. That’s all I can say. If that could’ve happened from me, from doing it, but that wasn’t on purpose. Like I was trying to save his life.”

I pressed him further, asking what happened that day. He repeated that Mustafa was choking and could not breathe, so he tried to make him breathe and was giving him CPR.

I put to Ali that he now knew it was him who caused the injuries to his son.

He said yes, but then corrected himself and said he was not saying it was him but what happened “wasn’t intentional”.

He said he was “worried” about what could happen to him

“If I’m guilty, I’m guilty.”

He later brought up that it might have been someone “behind my back” who caused injuries earlier.

“So when I was giving him the CPR so that would’ve caused that injury to become more big and cause his death,” he said.

I asked him how he felt about what happened, and he replied: “I feel angry what I did”.

“Because I didn’t do that on purpose, but if that would’ve resulted in that then – I feel very bad.”

The interview ended shortly after.

Two days later Ali was charged with murdering his son.

Police would later interview me about my conversations with Ali. I told them that in my third interview with him I felt Ali was admitting to being responsible for the injuries his son suffered that day, but that it was not intentional.

The guilty plea

Nearly two years after my third interview with Ali, he appeared in the High Court at Hamilton and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter, as well as charges of assault with intent to injure between 1 February 2023, and 31 May 2023, and assaulting a person in a family relationship between June 2023 and June 2024.

The agreed summary of facts, obtained by RNZ, talks about Ali moving to New Zealand from Fiji in July 2022. In September 2022 he met Tauvalea Law at their Te Kuiti workplace.

They began a relationship shortly after and Law became pregnant in January 2023. Ali “immediately expressed concern” about the prospect of having a child before he was settled in New Zealand, the summary says, and encouraged Law to terminate the pregnancy.

Law wanted to keep the baby, and initially misled Ali to believe she had miscarried. The relationship continued, and Ali became aware she was still pregnant months later when he found a pregnancy scan she had hidden from him.

An argument ensued.

“The defendant was angry and slapped Ms Law about the face repeatedly. Ms Law was lying on her back on the bed and the defendant was sitting on her thighs. She tried to get him off and scratched his face. He pushed her down, placing his hands on her upper chest and around her neck before jumping on top of her with his knees on her abdomen.”

Law didn’t require medical attention and there was no harm to her pregnancy.

In mid-July 2023 the couple married, shortly before Mustafa was born.

“At times, the relationship between the defendant and Ms Law was volatile. On several occasions when angry with Ms Law, the defendant pushed and/or punched her.”

After Mustafa was born the family lived at a Te Kuiti property. Two extended family members related to Ali also lived at the address.

On 8 June 2024, Law woke up Mustafa crying about 6am. She settled him in bed between her and Ali and went back to sleep.

About 8am Law got up as her son and husband slept. She left home about 10.50am having asked Ali to give Mustafa a bath and feed him in advance of family celebrations to be held later that day.

Ali and Mustafa were home alone.

The summary says that Mustafa had been unwell with a high temperature and was displaying signs of being unsettled in the days prior.

As Ali told me at the time, sometime after Law left he fed Mustafa a bottle and some Weetbix. The baby vomited and was unsettled.

“The defendant tried later in the morning to feed him again, unsuccessfully. Frustrated, the defendant attempted to force-feed Mustafa the bottle causing prominent bruises to his chin. Unable to feed or settle the baby, the defendant became stressed and angry.

“During this time, the defendant caused a fatal injury to Mustafa through a violent blow directed to his abdomen.”

Law arrived home about 2.15pm, and was met at the front door by Ali holding Mustafa in his arms.

The baby was “floppy and cold to the touch”.

“The seriousness of Mustafa’s condition was immediately apparent to Ms Law who ran outside with Mustafa in search of assistance. The couple then drove direct to Te Kuiti Hospital.

“Mustafa was pronounced deceased shortly after arrival at the hospital.”

Mustafa died as a result of blunt force trauma resulting in a crushing injury to the abdomen.

“The impact of the injury lacerated his liver, and the wall of the large bowel in two locations. There was also bruising to the diaphragm, small bowel mesentery, and back of the abdominal wall. The lacerations caused bleeding into the abdominal cavity, and ultimately death.

“The relatively close location of all of the internal injuries to each other supports a suggestion the trauma was due to one impact of significant force. Possible causes of the trauma could include a punch, kick, or stomp.”

The injury to Mustafa’s liver was so severe the bleeding into the abdomen commenced immediately after the injury was inflicted and continued uninterrupted until he died.

“The nature of the injury is such it can be expected Mustafa was crying and in obvious discomfort until a decrease in blood pressure will have led to him becoming increasingly drowsy and ultimately losing consciousness.

“The extent of the internal injury was such that Mustafa will not have survived longer than 30 to 60 minutes after the blow was inflicted and it is quite possible death occurred more quickly than that.”

The summary of facts says that when Ali initially spoke to police he said Mustafa began to choke while feeding and, as he told me, the injury was likely caused by his subsequent attempt to perform CPR.

He described carrying out chest compressions which included using two hands on Mustafa’s chest and, effectively, punching him in the stomach.

A postmortem revealed Mustafa had abscesses caused by ulceration around either side of his larynx, which would have caused “significant discomfort” when ingesting food such as Weetbix.

There was also bruising behind each of Mustafa’s ears and a large bruise on the top of his head which were not visible externally. The pathologist said the bruises could have been caused up to 18 hours before Mustafa’s death.

“The bruising behind the ears may be consistent with an attempt to force feed the baby while holding his head, however the defendant has not provided an explanation that could account for the bruise to the top of his head.

“The pathologist cannot comment on the force used to inflict the bruise other than to say it was not sufficient to cause any kind of skull fracture or brain bleed.”

The pathologist also found fractures to Mustafa’s left ribs, but said they could have been the result of resuscitation attempts.

As for the CPR explanation, the pathologist ruled the force required to cause Mustafa’s internal injury “is not consistent with any CPR procedures”.

While Ali has admitted responsibility for the fatal blow, the exact manner in which it was delivered remains unknown.

RNZ asked police for comment on Monday about the investigation into the incident where Ali said he fell down the stairs with Mustafa.

A police spokesperson said police and the Crown had reviewed the circumstances surrounding the case.

“No charges have been laid in relation to the earlier incident, as there was insufficient evidence to do so.

“As the matter remains before the court for sentencing, we’re unable to provide further comment at this time.”

An Oranga Tamariki spokesperson told RNZ that in 2024 they completed a Rapid Practice Assessment into their involvement with the case.

“As a result of this assessment, recommendations from the report were commissioned regionally and nationally to support process and practice.

“As this matter is still before the courts, Oranga Tamariki is unable to comment further.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand