The mummified corpse of a four-year-old boy was found in a cot in his mother’s bedroom almost two years after he starved to death, a British jury was told yesterday.

Hamzah Khan’s body was still dressed in a baby-gro when police made the “dreadful discovery” at his house in Bradford, West Yorkshire, a court heard.

Details of how Hamzah’s body was found in September 2011 were outlined when his mother Amanda Hutton went on trial at Bradford Crown Court.

Hutton, 43, denies her son’s manslaughter.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Paul Greaney QC told the jury that Hamzah died when he was four-and-a-half years old on December 15, 2009. But the barrister said his remains were found 21 months later in clothing intended for a baby aged six to nine months. He said these clothes fitted him.

“Hamzah’s growth had been stunted,” Mr Greaney said.

“It had been stunted because he was malnourished over a lengthy period and that state of affairs resulted in his death.

“In short, he starved to death. Amanda Hutton failed to provide her child with the nourishment that he needed to survive and, in so failing, she killed him.”

Mr Greaney said the boy’s body was found after police community support officer Jodie Worsley spoke to Hutton and became concerned about the smell coming from her house. Eventually, more police arrived and went into the property.

She continued to claim child benefit in respect of her dead son

“What they discovered disturbed even hardened officers,” he said. Mr Greaney said the officers were faced with “conditions of squalor”.

He told the jury that within a cot in the bedroom of Amanda Hutton, a police officer made a dreadful discovery because beneath other items, he found the mummified corpse of a child.

The prosecutor said Hutton was an abuser of alcohol and cannabis.

The jury was told that Hutton ordered pizza within hours of her son’s death and continued to claim child benefits for him.