Mother, 31, who banged her child’s head repeatedly on the ground in ‘sudden match of rage’ is jailed for homicide

A mother who killed her two-month-old baby in a ‘sudden fit of rage’ has been jailed for life.

Zara Arsalan, 31, shook Harleen Bains vigorously and repeatedly banged her head on a table after ‘losing her temper’ with the defenceless baby at their Black Country home on July 23, 2020.

The assault lasted just seconds, leaving Harleen with ‘catastrophic injuries’ including a fractured skull and brain damage.

Yet Arsalan – also known as Sharandeep Talwandi – tried to convince detectives that her daughter’s death was merely a ‘tragic accident’. 

She was found guilty of murder and this week jailed for life with a minimum term of 19 years. 

Sentencing on Thursday at Coventry Crown Court, Mr Justice Cavanagh KC said ‘tiny’ Harleen ‘should have had a long and happy life ahead of her’. 

‘The death of a child at this young age is a tragedy,’ he said. ‘I’m sure that you (Arsalan) had no intent to harm Harleen until the very moment you did do. You acted in a sudden fit of rage.

‘The violence was ferocious. Tiny though she was, the pain and fear Harleen would have suffered will have been truly terrible. 

Zara Arsalan, 31, shook Harleen Bains vigorously and repeatedly banged her head on a table after ‘losing her temper’ with the defenceless baby at their Black Country home on July 23, 2020

‘In this case, not only did you shake Harleen with extreme force but you also hit her head with great force against a hard surface a number of times.

‘No one could have done this to a tiny and fragile baby without appreciating that there was a real prospect that it would lead to her death, not just injury.

‘I’m sure, therefore, that you did not care if you killed her or not.’

It was heard that Arsalan lived with her daughter and Harleen’s father, Jatinder Bains, at a property in West Bromwich, near Birmingham. 

But Arsalan and Mr Bains’s relationship had become ‘stormy’ in the weeks before the baby’s death, around two years after they first got together. 

Between three and six days before her passing, Harleen suffered a rib fracture caused by her mother’s ‘rough handling’ during a loss of temper. 

It was heard that Arsalan had been finding motherhood a ‘struggle’, but was said to have had a ‘good mother and baby bond’. 

The judge added: ‘Harleen would have screamed or cried loudly for some minutes after you did this to her so you would have realised that you had hurt her.

‘You knew, by that stage, that you were at risk of harming Harleen but you did not seek help or support.’

Mr Bains dialled 999 on July 23, minutes after his baby suffered injuries at the hands of Arsalan. 

Harleen died the next day due to a brain injury which caused ‘catastrophic and irreversible damage’. She also sustained multiple blunt force blows to her head, a broken collarbone, a fracture to her left leg and injury to her spine.

Medical evidence indicated that she had been held ‘very tightly and roughly’, causing ‘oscillation’ of her head and neck. 

This would have been ‘far outside the range of normal handling’, the court heard.

Mr Justice Cavanagh KC said: ‘The person doing it would have had no doubt that it would have caused injury to their child.’

Harleen’s head was banged ‘very hard’ against the floor ‘three or four times’, the judge added. The level of force used would have been ‘exceptionally severe’.

Mr Justice Cavanagh KC said he believed the ‘trigger’ for the violence was that ‘Harleen would not stop crying’ and Arsalan was ‘tired and stressed’.

The judge added: ‘It’s absolutely clear that you lost your temper with her.’

The court heard that Mr Bains, 31, died by suicide in August 2022.

Arsalan – who was 25 at the time of Harleen’s death and had no previous convictions – gave ‘conflicting and untruthful’ accounts to police about what had happened to her daughter.

In 2020, she claimed that Harleen had ‘wriggled’ out of her arms and onto the floor as she changed her.

When she was interviewed again in 2022 – after hearing of Mr Bains’ death – she lied once again.

Arsalan, formerly of Cherrywood Road, Birmingham, insisted Mr Bains had assaulted both mother and baby while she was holding Harleen.

Mr Justice Cavanagh KC said: ‘This was a false narrative, designed to throw blame upon Mr Bains.’

He went on: ‘There is no suggestion that Arsalan and Mr Bains were jointly responsible for the assault on Harleen.’