Pregnant woman ‘fell between 40 and 50ft from landmark after husband pushed her’
A pregnant woman whom prosecutors say was murdered by her husband fell between 40 and 50ft from an Edinburgh hill, a court has heard.
Kashif Anwar, 29, denies murdering his wife Fazwiyah Javed and her unborn child in September 2021 by pushing her from Arthur’s Seat in Holyrood Park.
A High Court in Edinburgh heard how Mr Anwar told police he ‘fell into her’ at the summit of the hill, which caused her to fall to her death.
Anwar, from Leeds, also denied additional charges against him, including one of acting in a threatening and abusive way towards his wife at a hotel in Edinburgh the day before the alleged murder.
Yesterday, Police Constable Sean Henderson told the court that the accused was taken to Gayfield Square police station after his wife’s fall and, at about 12.45am the next day, was told of her death.
Referring to Anwar’s response to the news, the officer said: ‘There wasn’t much of a reaction, in my opinion, he didn’t say much to it and didn’t have any obvious physical reaction.’
After being told of his wife’s death, he told PC Henderson: “I know how this looks. We had our problems as a couple, but…’
The court was told Anwar, from Leeds, never finished what he was saying as more officers entered the room and he was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Speaking today on the fifth day of the trial, Police Sergeant Alastair Paisley, 41, told the court he estimated Ms Javed had fallen ‘between 40 and 50 ft’.
Sgt Paisley was a crime scene manager at the site of the incident, and showed jurors drone footage and images of the site.
The footage showed a cone on the side of the hill, indicating where Ms Javed first landed, and images of a tent which had been placed over her body on the hillside after she died.
Detective Sergeant Christopher Edmund told the jury that mountain rescue had been called in to help recover the body as it was in an ‘extremely difficult location to get to’.
Ian Duguid KC, Anwar’s defence, told the court that during his client’s police interview shortly after the incident, Anwar said he and Ms Javed had left the summit of the landmark because it was busy and Mr Anwar thought they should go home.
Sabeen Rashid, 43, a major crime analyst, also gave evidence, going through a 97-page telecoms report with advocate depute Alex Prentice KC.
Pictures from Arthur’s Seat were shown, timed between about 8.06pm and 8.30pm taken on the phone attributed to Ms Javed, which included selfies of herself and her husband.
As part of the report, Ms Rashid told the court that a six-second call was made from the phone attributed to Ms Javed at 9.19pm to the device attributed to her father, and at 9.20pm there was a call to the number associated with Anwar’s father’s phone, which lasted one minute.
Firefighter Sean Stratford was one of the emergency responders dispatched to the scene just after 9pm on the day.
He told the trial that rescue crews could not find Ms Javed when they arrived, but a man approached them to assist and pointed out the area.
The firefighter said he could not remember if the man identified himself as the injured woman’s husband or not.
Mr Stratford told the court: ‘He said that he stood up to take a selfie, he slipped and bumped her and she had fallen.’
The trial, before Lord Beckett, continues.
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