A mother and her lesbian lover have been found guilty of killing an eight-year-old girl after getting caught up in a twisted romance revolving around fictional Facebook characters.

Polly Chowdhury, 35, and Kiki Muddar, 43, were on trial at the Old Bailey for the murder of the Chowdhury's daughter Ayesha Ali at their home in Chadwell Heath, east London, in August 2013.

The jury, which retired on February 19, cleared them of murder but found them guilty of manslaughter by a majority of 10-2 after deliberating for more than 31 hours.

Both women held their heads in their hands as the verdicts were delivered.

On the morning of August 29, 2013, Muddar dialled 999 to report Chowdhury had tried to kill herself in the bath and that Ayesha was dead.

Paramedics discovered the child "cold and stiff" in her bedroom dressed only in a pair of pink pants. Although the cause of her death was a head injury, she suffered more than 40 injuries, including a bite mark and carpet burns.

Chowdhury had left a series of notes, appearing to admit the killing, saying: "I have taken my life and Ayesha's life".

But during the course of the investigation, police discovered evidence implicating Muddar in Ayesha's death.

Officers unravelled a set of alter egos on Facebook and text which Muddar had created to control and seduce Chowdhury, turning her against her daughter because she saw her as a threat.

Muddar had befriended Chowdhury when they lived next door to each other and she got sympathy by pretending to be fighting cancer.

Chowdhury's husband Afsar Ali moved the family to get away from her influence, but Muddar followed and evicted him from the marital bed, leading to the breakdown of the marriage.

Meanwhile, Muddar spun a web of lies and deceit through her fake personas, including Chowdhury's cyber boyfriend Jimmy.

She was also behind a fake spirit guide Skyman, used to prey on Chowdhury's religious belief in ghosts and messages from beyond the grave.

Muddar, who claimed to work as an engineer for the Olympics, expressed her hatred for the innocent child in a series of phone calls and texts which she kept copies of, and even blamed Ayesha for making her cancer worse, the court heard.

She told Chowdhury, a solicitors' admin worker, that Ayesha was "evil" and had "bad blood" and repeatedly encouraged her to discipline the child.

She bombarded Chowdhury with more than 40,000 texts telling her: "You have no right to ever love or like your evil daughter".