A one-year-old baby girl allegedly attacked with a hammer by her Indian-origin father in London recently lost her eyesight and can hear only partially.
Bidhya Sagar Das was charged with the brutal murder of her twin brother, Gabriel, and her own attempted
murder at a court in London earlier this month.
The 33-year-old was arrested after Scotland Yard launched a manhunt for him on finding the two children in a critical condition in a flat in Hackney area of north-east London on March 18.
The baby girl, Maria, was rushed to hospital in critical condition. Now it has emerged that she cannot see and only has partial hearing following the incident.
"We are all praying that little Maria recovers her eyesight and isn't permanently blinded by the attack," a friend of the twins' mother, Cristinela Datcu, said.
"Cristinela sits in hospital with Maria, willing, wishing and praying for her full recovery after surgery, for what are quite daunting
head injuries for such a young child."
The Metropolitan Police's Homicide and Major Crime Command has been investigating the brutal attack.
The twins lived on the top floor of the building on Wilberforce Road near Finsbury Park in London, where the attack took place, with their Romanian mother, Cristinela Datcu and Indian-origin father.
Horrified neighbours had reported a woman, believed to be the children's mother, rushing out of the home screaming, "My kids, my kids!", on the night of the attack.
It is believed the mother was locked in the bathroom as the children were attacked with a hammer. Das worked as a hotel receptionist nearby but quit his job recently.
Florentina Ilie, from Watford, said: "We are all praying that little Maria recovers her eyesight and isn't permanently blinded by the attack."
Florentina described how Cristinela has to find a new home to rent because she can't return to live in the house where her son died. She said the grieving mum also has Gabriel's funeral to pay for - and needs money to support herself while her little girl recovers. "Cristinela is a hard-working ordinary person who has a job in a North London hotel, with the twins and the income the family had, they managed to live a reasonable but by no means luxurious life," she said.