A couple have been jailed for life for killing their own 13-week-old baby – with newly released police bodycam footage revealing the moment the pair were arrested.
Klevi and Nivalda Pirjani were found guilty of murdering their son Miguel Pirjani, who died in November 2024 after being ‘systematically abused’ by his evil parents.
He was left with numerous broken bones and a bleed on the brain, having seemingly been subjected to repeated assaults during his short life.
The husband and wife later sought to blame one another for his death, with Nivalda, the baby’s mother, alleging Klevi had ‘lost control’ before headbutting and kicking their son.
Both returned to Liverpool Crown Court for sentencing on Monday after being unanimously convicted of murder in a trial by jury last October.
Appearing in the dock wearing a beige turtle neck jumper and glasses, Nivalda Pirjani was handed a life sentence with a minimum 15 years and three months behind bars.
Nivalda showed no reaction, sitting with her arms folded as she was jailed for life.
Sitting to her right, Klevi Pirjani, who was said to have referred to Miguel as a ‘monster’ and ‘it’, was meanwhile told that he must serve at least 19 years before having any chance of release.
Klevi Pirjani, 37, was told he must serve at least 19 years before having any chance of release
Nivalda Pirjani, 34, was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 15 years and three months behind bars
He appeared to be wiping away tears as he learned his fate, closing his eyes and hanging his head at one stage before taking of his glasses and rubbing his eyes.
Chilling police bodycam footage has been released showing Nivalda being interviewed by officers after her son Miguel was found fatally injured.
In the video Nivalda can be heard asking ‘what are the injuries’ before a policeman details a number of wounds, including a ‘fractured skull’ and a ‘bleed on the brain’.
Medical tests revealed he suffered a fractured skull and ribs.
Miguel passed away at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool, Merseyside, on 29 November 2024 five days after the brutal incident.
Police began investigating the incident after Miguel was found unresponsive inside the couple’s house in Seacombe, the Wirral, Merseyside, on November 24 2024.
In a separate audio clip of the 999 phone call made by Klevi he can be heard calmly saying he has a ‘three-month young one that just stopped breathing’ and ‘not reacting at all’.
He was later seen with his hands on his head in tears after the paramedics arrived at his house.
Chilling police bodycam footage has been released showing Nivalda being interviewed by officers after her son Miguel Pirjani was found fatally injured
In a separate audio clip of the 999 phone call made by Klevi he can be heard calmly saying he has a ‘three-month young one that just stopped breathing’ and ‘not reacting at all’
High Court judge Mr Justice Baker said during today’s sentencing: ‘The best of medical science could not save Miguel Pirjani. He died from the irreversible effects of severe trauma to the head and neck.
‘Miguel was 13-and-a-half weeks old when he died. You were his parents, and you killed him by what must have been an act of appalling violence, intending him to suffer really serious harm.
‘It is possible that you intended to kill him to be rid of him, but I am not sure that was your intention.
‘I am sure that the fatal trauma Miguel suffered involved a heavy blow or series of blows to the right side of his head.’
Mr Justice Baker added that he ‘cannot say’ precisely how the infant’s head injuries were inflicted – or how many blows to the head he had suffered.
He added that it was unclear whether Miguel was ‘battered onto a hard surface or some blunt object’ was used in the attack, adding that it was ‘probable that it was you, Klevi’, who dealt the fatal injuries.
The judge said: ‘What exactly happened to Miguel that morning remains the guilty secret of a warped relationship where you came first to one another. The interest of Team Klevi and Nivalda came first.
He said there must have been an escalation in the violence against Miguel in the final few days before his death before the fatal head injuries he sustained on November 24.
He was later seen with his hands on his head in tears after the paramedics arrived at his house
In the video Nivalda can be heard asking ‘what are the injuries’ before a policeman details a number of wounds, including a ‘fractured skull’ and a ‘bleed on the brain’
Mr Justice Baker added Miguel’s murder was an ‘abuse of power and gross abuse of trust of the bond between a baby and parents’.
He said there was ‘no mitigation available for Klevi’ despite his ‘difficult’ childhood, which was ‘affected by armed conflict (in his native Albania) and the deaths of your father and young sister’.
The judge told the court Nivalda was of previous good character. She had suffered from post natal depression and was estranged from her family, the Liverpool Echo reports.
The judge said she had shown a ‘measure’ of remorse – but that she had tried to limit her own responsibility in Miguel’s death by fighting a trial.
The court previously heard that Klevi had called 999 shortly before midday on November 24, 2024, to report that Miguel was unresponsive.
Prosecutor Peter Wright KC 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 thereafter 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, he was subsequently taken to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in an ‘extremely serious’ condition.
Doctors discovered that 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: ‘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.
Mr Wright added during the prosecution’s opening: ‘At the time of his passing, his mother was permitted to hold his hand. Whilst present, she was heard to say “I should have protected you.”‘
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.
Under interview, Nivalda gave a prepared statement to detectives in which she described Klevi as being abusive and violent.
Tributes pictured outside the couple’s house on Percy Road, Wirral, in the days after baby Miguel had been murdered
The 34-year-old added that she did not blame her partner for Miguel’s injuries but said ‘she was frightened of him and feared what he may do’.
She also went on to repeat her claim that her husband was the one responsible for looking after Miguel.
But Mr Wright said of this account: ‘We say her account is a fiction, calculated to conceal her own involvement in these events and to infer that any responsibility for the injuries sustained by Miguel and his death are the sole responsibility of her partner Klevi. We say they were in it together from the start.’
When he was questioned, Klevi disputed Nivalda’s claims and said that no concerns had been raised during previous appointments with healthcare professionals.
The 37-year-old also queried whether Miguel’s rib fractures could have been caused by resuscitation efforts.
Mr Wright said that the injuries to Miguel’s ribs were of varying ages.
He told the court that some had been inflicted before November 24 and that any fractures later found were, in the opinion of a Home Office forensic pathologist, ‘not consistent with CPR’.
Mr Wright said: ‘Each of the injuries found, whether fatal or non-fatal, were, in his professional opinion, non-accidental in origin.
‘We say that Miguel was systematically physically abused by his parents. They caused him really serious non-fatal injury with intent so to do. They caused or allowed his death.’
In her evidence, Nivalda told the court that she met her husband and co-defendant online in 2014, when she was living in Kirkby and he was residing in Birmingham, before they moved in together in 2016.
But she said: ‘I’ve always been scared of Klevi. I was scared of Klevi trying to do something to me, because Klevi can be violent, aggressive, lose control. He [would] give a slap and beat me, on the face and on my body.’
Asked whether she had previously tried to leave the relationship, Pirjani said: ‘Klevi stopped me all the time. Shouting, frightening, scaring me.
Miguel spent the first six weeks of his life in hospital due to medical issues and was struggling to feed
‘I just tried to run away from the house. He tried to be aggressive with me, lost control, shouting and tried to beat me as well.’
Miguel was then born on August 27, 2024, and spent the first six weeks of his life in hospital due to medical issues.
She recalled that Klevi would ‘get angry’ if Miguel was struggling to feed and, on occasion, would ‘probably give a slap on Miguel or bang his head on Miguel’.
Nivalda described how Klevi had slapped the baby on his back with ‘very strong’ force or hit his head ‘by head by head’.
Of an incident two days after Miguel was discharged from his initial stay in hospital, she added: ‘Miguel didn’t take the milk like Klevi wanted.
‘Klevi got angry and lost control and held Miguel by hips and banged Miguel on the bed on the floor at lot of times.
‘I ran to stop Klevi. Then Klevi left and he came back, and he kicked Miguel on the left side of his hips.’
Asked what she had done to intervene, Klevi replied: ‘I just stopped Klevi. I didn’t do nothing because I was scared of Klevi. I just took Miguel from his hands, pushed Klevi away.’
Klevimeanwhile told the jury that he and Nivalda had a ‘good relationship, very strong’ and denied being violent or controlling towards his wife.
The former chef and digger driver went on to describe himself as ‘the best dad in the world’, saying of the moment that he learned he was going to have a son: ‘It was a dream for me. My Miguel.’
His counsel Sarah Vine KC put to him Nivalda’s claims that he had assaulted Miguel when he was struggling to feed, but he said: ‘No, that’s not true. How can I harm my son? Never can I harm my son.’
She subsequently put to him: ‘Mr Pirjani, the injuries to your baby son were extensive, devastating and fatal. Did you cause any of those injuries?’
Klevi then appeared to become emotional as he responded: ‘How can I harm my son? I never would do that. I love my son so much.
‘My blood, you know. I cared for him, the best treatment for him. I loved him so much.’
In cross-examination, Nivalda’s defence counsel Rupert Bowers KC detailed how Klevi had previously stood trial before the same court accused of a violent offence in 2016.
He had denied this charge but was ultimately convicted by a jury, leading to him conceding: ‘I was lying. That was 10 years ago.. I was very young at the time. I did not say the truth.’
Asked who he had ‘blamed for it’, Klevi replied: ‘I can’t remember details, I think I said Nivalda I can’t remember the evidence that Nivalda gave. I didn’t tell Nivalda what to say.’
Asked who had caused the injuries that led to Miguel’s death, Klevi said ‘I don’t know’. He also said he had not ‘seen them being caused’, before Mr Bowers put to him: ‘If it wasn’t you, Mr Pirjani, then who was it?’
Kelvi replied ‘Nivalda’ before adding ‘I didn’t see’. Mr Bowers continued: ‘You can’t quite bring yourself to tell that last lie, can you? You did not see, so you say, Nivalda commit any assault on Miguel. And yet you are blaming her, aren’t you?’
But Klevi said ‘no, I’m not blaming her’. When Mr Bowers asked ‘who are you blaming then, who did it?’, he responded: ‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen.
‘I never seen those injuries. What can I say, if I never seen those injuries? I didn’t do it.’
Mr Bowers went on to reference a text message, sent from Klevi to Nivalda Pirjani prior to Miguel’s death, in which he said ‘I’m feeding your bishe’.
While the defendant maintained that the final word meant ‘hero’ in Albanian, it was put to him: ‘It means monster. It means beast. I’m feeding your beast.’
Klevi however said ‘no, that’s not true’. Mr Bowers then alleged that he ‘didn’t like the fact that Miguel was born with abnormalities and difficulties’ to which he replied: ‘How can you say I didn’t like Miguel if I never missed an appointment? How didn’t I care for my son?’
Mr Bowers then said: ‘You cared so well for your son that you have no idea how he came by 41 fractures and suffered a fatal blow to the head. Is that right?’
Pirjani responded: ‘I don’t know where his injuries came from. Of course I loved my son. I did love my son. I loved him.’
Nivalda’s account that her partner had ‘headbutted their son at three in the morning’ was then put to him, but he said ‘no, that’s not true’.
Asked whether his wife had ‘made it up’, Klevi Pirjani stated: ‘I don’t know sir. That’s not true. She’s lying, yeah.’
Concluding his questioning, Mr Bowers said: ‘You caused all of those injuries to your son, didn’t you?
‘It was you that got frustrated with your son again on the morning of the 24th of November and you did it again, didn’t you?’
Pirjani responded: ‘No, never. No. Nivalda was there. How can I harm my son, sir? How can I harm my son? I never harmed my son. No, I never harmed my son, sir.’
Detective Inspector Holly Chance, of Merseyside Police, said on Monday following the sentencing hearing: ‘Baby Miguel’s life was cruelly cut short at the hands of his parents who were meant to nurture and protect him.
‘We hope this sentencing provides some sense of justice for Miguel’s wider family who won’t be able to see him grow up and our thoughts remain with them.’
