Vegetarian couple accused of intentionally ravenous their three-year-old daughter to loss of life deny homicide

A vegetarian couple accused of deliberately starving their three-year-old daughter to death have denied murder.

Jaskiret Singh Uppal, 36, and Manpreet Jatana, 34, appeared via video link from HMP Pentonville and Bronzefield respectively at the Old Bailey on Tuesday to plead not guilty to killing Penelope Chandle.

Police had launched a murder probe after her ‘very emaciated’ body was found wrapped in a sheet at her home in west London.

Officers had been called after Ms Jatana rang a funeral director and told them her daughter had died on December 17, 2023.

Experts have given Penelope’s cause of death as severe malnutrition and ketoacidosis.

The child was found with bruising to her neck and also had injuries on her hands from a sharp object, the court was told.

Prosecutor Philip McGhee previously said the Crown’s case was that the defendants mistreated their daughter over an ‘extended period of time’ and ‘deliberately starved her’, leading to her death.

At the time Penelope died, officers were said to have found the family’s vegetarian diet mainly consisted of yoghurt, lentils and butter.

Police found Penelope’s ‘very emaciated’ body wrapped in a sheet with bruising to her neck Pictured: The Old Bailey

The little girl’s birth was also never registered and she did not go to school, the Old Bailey was told.

The court heard the couple failed to provide her with GP care as they ‘isolated’ themselves from the wider world.

When the child died, it is alleged that they initially thought of cremating the body in the back garden of their home in Hayes, west London, before contacting a funeral director.

The defendants, who met at university, lived in a house belonging to Uppal’s father and have not worked for some some time.

A trial date was set for January 11, 2027, as the pair also denied manslaughter, causing of or allowing the death of a child and child cruelty.