A mother and father wept in the dock as they were found guilty of murdering their 13-week-old baby boy in November last year. Klevi Pirjani, 37, and his wife, Nivalda Santos Pirjani, 34, were accused of “systematically abusing” Miguel Pirjani before his death, at which stage the infant was found to have suffered numerous broken bones and a bleed on the brain.
Both were unanimously convicted of Miguel’s murder at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday afternoon following a three-week trial. Each defendant was seen to be in tears in the dock as the verdict was returned, as were the jury of six men and six women.
Speaking after the verdict, Detective Inspector Holly Chance, Senior investigating Officer from Merseyside Police, said: “This was a truly shocking murder of baby Miguel Pirjani, and it has been an extremely distressing case for us to investigate.
“Miguel was only three months old when his life was tragically cut short at the violent hands of his parents.
“Today’s conviction of Klevi and Nivalda is exceptionally heartbreaking as Miguel lost his life tragically by his own parents who were meant to nurture and protect him from harm.”
Klevi Pirjani called 999 shortly before midday on November 24, 2024, to report his son was unresponsive, the court heard earlier, according to the Liverpool ECHO.
Peter Wright KC, prosecuting, said: “He told the operator that Miguel just stopped breathing.
“Curiously, he referred to his son as ‘it’. It just stopped breathing. It is a matter for you to consider in due course as to whether this was a product of distress on his part, a language barrier or an unintended indication of his attitude towards Miguel.”
Emergency services attended the family home on Percy Road in Seacombe, Wirral, “within minutes” and found the baby in cardiac arrest.
While paramedics were able to recover a pulse, Miguel was subsequently taken to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in an “extremely serious” condition.
The court heard doctors found Miguel had sustained bruising on the left side of his head, while a CT scan found a fissure to his skull and bleeding on the brain, in addition to fractures to his right collarbone, left upper arm and left shin.
These broken bones were said to have been of varying age, with Mr Wright saying of this: “The inevitable conclusion to be drawn from the injuries was that Miguel had been subjected to a course of conduct in which serious and obvious injuries had been sustained.”
Miguel remained in an unconscious state over the coming days, although his injuries were ultimately found to be “irreversible”.
He remained on life support until November 29, 2024, when he died following the removal of artificial ventilation.
A post-mortem examination later revealed further injuries, including retinal haemorrhages, displaced skull bones, bleeding on both sides of the brain, bleeding around the cervical cord and a fatal hypoxic ischaemic brain injury.
Miguel was born on August 27, 2024, and spent the first six weeks of his life in hospital due to medical issues.
Nivalda Pirjani had previously admitted the lesser charge of allowing or causing the death of a child.
Both Klevi Pirjani and Nivalda Pirjani were remanded into custody and will be sentenced at a later date.