A five-year-old autistic boy died instantly after leaping from a 15th-floor kitchen window in the belief that he could fly, an inquest has concluded. Aalim Ahmed fell from a tower in Plaistow, east London, on May 16, 2024.
Assistant coroner Ian Wade delivered a narrative conclusion, stating that while the window was "compromised," there was "no compelling reason why a landlord should've considered that placing this little boy on the 15th floor was inappropriate." The inquest heard conflicting accounts regarding the condition of the windows.
An engineer sent by Newham Council in December 2023 to inspect and overhaul windows and handles found them to be functioning at the time of his assessment. However, the boy's mother, Sahra Osman, had lodged complaints over several months, expressing fears that the windows were opening too widely and that she lacked a key to secure them. She had previously stated her horror when Newham Council placed them in the top-floor flat, which required repairs, and suggested the authority could have prevented the tragedy. The inquest exonerated the council from culpability.