'Unduly lenient' Merseyside parents who battered defenceless baby get longer jail sentences

Two parents who “fatally battered” their three-month-old son have had their “unduly lenient” sentences increased at the Court of Appeal.

Klevi Pirjani and Nivalda Pirjani were ordered to serve at least 19 years and 15 years and three months behind bars, respectively, at Liverpool Crown Court earlier this year after being convicted of killing 13-week-old Miguel Pirjani after weeks of abuse.

Miguel was admitted to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in November 2024 with severe head injuries and died five days later, and was later found to have sustained 41 separate bone fractures in at least four separate incidents.

The Attorney General, Ellie Reeves, referred Klevi and Nivalda Pirjani’s sentences to the Court of Appeal as “unduly lenient” in April, with barristers telling a hearing on Tuesday that they did not “meet the justice of this terrible case”.

Klevi Pirjani, 38, and Nivalda Pirjani, 35, opposed the bid to increase their sentences, with their barristers claiming they were appropriate.

But three senior judges ruled at the end of the hearing in London that the sentences were “unduly lenient”, increasing Klevi Pirjani’s minimum term to one of 21 years and six months, and Nivalda Pirjani’s to 17 years and nine months.

Lord Justice Jeremy Baker, sitting with Mr Justice Goose and Mr Justice Hilliard, said the pair subjected their son to “routine” assaults which increased in severity and culminated in his “particularly callous” murder.

He said: “We take the view that the resulting sentences significantly underestimated the aggravating factors, to the extent that not only do we consider that the minimum terms were unduly lenient, but that we should set them aside.”

Bill Emlyn Jones KC, for the Attorney General, said in written submissions that Miguel’s death was caused by an assault by his parents on November 24 2024, which involved “a heavy blow, or series of blows, to the right side of his head”.

Paramedics arrived two minutes after his parents called 999 following Miguel suffering a cardiac arrest at their home in Percy Road, Seacombe, Merseyside, but he never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead five days later.

Mr Emlyn Jones said that while the boy was in hospital, a “wider picture of long-standing physical abuse emerged”, including the discovery of multiple fractured ribs, fractured legs and a fractured sternum suffered across several incidents before the fatal attack.

He also said that while it could not be ascertained which of Klevi and Nivalda Pirjani inflicted the fatal violence, “whichever it was, they did so with the encouragement of their partner”.

Sentencing them in March, Mr Justice Andrew Baker said the pair were “in this together, encouraging each other” to attack their “defenceless” son.

He said that who “fatally battered” the infant “remains the guilty secret of a warped relationship, in which you came first for each other to an unnatural degree”.

But Mr Emlyn Jones said in court that the sentences passed “simply do not reflect the vulnerability of the victim and the gross breach of trust this murder constituted”.

He continued that while the judge adopted the correct starting point for the sentences, the murder “was so serious that a significant upward adjustment was required from that starting point in order to meet the justice of the case and reflect the very substantial aggravating features”.

Rupert Bowers KC, for Nivalda Pirjani, acknowledged in court that “of course” her sentence was lenient, but that the sentencing judge “considered all of the factors”.

He said: “There is nothing that would indicate that the sentences he passed are beyond the ambit of reasonableness, or an error of principle, so that this court should interfere with his exercise of discretion, having heard all the evidence.”

Sarah Vine KC, for Klevi Pirjani, also said her client’s sentence was “undoubtedly lenient, but not unduly, and leniency in itself is not a vice”.

Klevi and Nivalda Pirjani, watching proceedings from HMP Wakefield in Yorkshire and HMP Styal in Cheshire respectively, showed no reaction as their sentences were increased.