Mastermind behind PC Sharon Beshenivsky killing GUILTY of murder after cop shot at almost point-blank range 19 years ago
THE mastermind behind the killing of a police officer has been found guilty of murder – 18 years after she was shot at almost point-blank range.
PC Sharon Beshenivsky, 38, was gunned down while responding to an armed robbery at a travel agents in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 2005.
Her colleague PC Teresa Milburn, who was 37 at the time, was left seriously injured after a gunman opened fire “indiscriminately” as he fled the scene.
Piran Ditta Khan, who planned the robbery, has today been convicted of murder following a trial.
The 75-year-old, who admitted robbery, was also found guilty of two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon.
His conviction brings the horror case to a close after Khan fled to Pakistan three months after the shooting.
Six men have been found guilty over the botched robbery, with Khan now the seventh to face justice.
At the time, PC Beshenivsky was only the second policewoman to be killed on duty in the UK.
Leeds Crown Court was told Khan was not one of the three men who carried out the raid and did not shoot the mum, who had three children and two stepchildren.
The coward instead “did not leave the safety” of a Mercedes SLK which was being used as a lookout car and sat eating sandwiches.
He had masterminded the robbery “in the knowledge that loaded firearms were to be carried”, prosecutor Robert Smith KC said.
The raiders were then “disposed to use their firearms to kill or to seriously injure anyone who stood in their way… something of which the defendant would have been well aware”.
Mr Smith added: “The part [Khan] played was such that the prosecution contends he is also guilty of the murder of Sharon Beshenivsky.”
Khan had used Universal Express travel agents before and was aware large amounts of cash were kept on the premises during the day.
In the five days leading up to the horror, he carried out a reconnaissance mission at the building.
He then spent the evening before partying at a “safe house” with his accomplices surrounded by weapons – including a 9mm self-loading pistol, MAC-10 machine gun and large kitchen knife.
The group went to a brothel where they were each handed £80 to spend on “entertainment and sex”.
They then returned to the safe house and ordered a takeaway from Charcoal Chicken before going to sleep.
The following morning, Khan told his associates they could expect get between £50,000 and £100,000 for the raid.
The gang then made their way to the premises in a convoy of three cars – including the Mercedes Khan hid in.
Both PC Beshenivsky and PC Milburn were unarmed and posed no threat when they were scrambled to the building.
PC Beshenivsky had only been a police officer for nine months when she was blasted in the chest on what was her youngest daughter Lydia’s fourth birthday.
The bullet tore through her stab-proof vest, hit a rib, punctured her aorta artery and damaged her spine – causing her chest to fill with blood.
Her injury was immediately fatal, while PC Milburn was left coughing up blood as she radioed for help after also being shot.
My body was shaking, I felt like going to sleep and giving in.
PC Milburn
During her harrowing evidence, she recalled PC Beshenivsky stopping “in terror” as she saw the gunman.
She told how the officer collapsed before she found herself literally staring down the barrel of a gun.
The cop added: “I felt immense pain and knew straight away I had been shot.
“The force of the second shot spun me round. The force was unbelievable.
“I was in extreme pain, I was still spitting blood. I thought ‘stay awake’.
“My radio was covered in blood and so was the floor where I had been coughing constantly.
“My body was shaking, I felt like going to sleep and giving in.”
Khan was brought back to the UK last year following an extradition request from the government.
He was remanded into custody to be sentenced at a later date.
Detective Superintendent Marc Bowes of West Yorkshire Police said: “Today as always our thoughts remain with Pc Sharon Beshenivsky and her family, Sharon went to work to protect the public, she responded to a call for help alongside her colleague Teresa but tragically never came home.
“This verdict is the culmination of 18 years of hard work, tenacious grit and determination to bring Khan before the courts.”
Timeline of horror - how seven men have been brought to justice
– November 2003: Sharon Beshenivsky joins West Yorkshire Police as a Police Community Support Officer.
– February 2005: She becomes a serving police officer with West Yorkshire Police.
– November 13 2005: Piran Ditta Khan and Hassan Razzaq travel from London to carry out reconnaissance on Universal Express travel agents in Morley Street, Bradford.
– November 17: Four of the group gather at a “safe house” on Harehills Lane, Leeds, where they party on champagne and vodka, and visit a brothel.
– November 18, 7am: Pc Beshenivsky, 38, and Pc Teresa Milburn, 37, begin their day from Bradford Central police station.
3pm: Three men posing as customers go in to Universal Express travel agents, before brandishing weapons, assaulting staff and demanding money before threatening to “shoot the youngest”.
3.26pm: Waqas Yousaf manages to trigger a silent alarm. Police are alerted and Pc Beshenivsky and Pc Milburn respond to the report. As they approach the door a gunman emerges from the premises and shoots both officers before firing indiscriminately on the way to a getaway car. The robbers escape with a little over £5,000.
3.32pm: Officers at West Yorkshire Police’s control room receive a Code Zero call, indicating a colleague has been shot. Officers arrive within minutes and Pc Beshenivsky is taken to hospital but cannot be saved.
– November 20: Paul Beshenivsky, Pc Beshenivsky’s widower, arrives at the scene of the shooting to lay flowers.
– November 20: Pc Milburn is released from hospital.
– November 25: Police name three men they want in connection with the murder and issue photos of Muzzaker Shah, and brothers Mustaf and Yusuf Jama.
– November 27: Police arrest Yusuf Jama in Birmingham.
– December 12: Muzzaker Shah is arrested in Newport, Gwent.
– Between Christmas and New Year Mustaf Jamma is thought to flee the country to his native Somalia.
– January 2006: Hundreds of police officers line the streets of Bradford as Pc Beshenivsky’s funeral cortege moves through the city towards the funeral service at Bradford Cathedral, passing the spot where she was gunned down.
– October 2006: A trial starts for five of the group. Shah pleads guilty to murder before the jury is sworn in.
– December 2006: Yusuf Abdillh Jama is found guilty of murder. Brothers Hassan Razzaq and Faisal Razzaq are cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter by a majority of 10-1.
Raza Ul-Haq Aslam is cleared of both murder and manslaughter. The jury failed to reach a verdict in relation to the robbery charge faced by him.
– December 20: Newspapers report that Mustaf Jama fled Britain, passing through Heathrow Airport disguised as his sister wearing a veil.
– December 22: Shah and Yusuf Jama are sentenced to life and ordered to serve at least 35 years in jail. Shah makes defiant gangster rap-style hand gestures to relatives as he is led out of the dock.
Faisal Razzaq is given a life sentence and told he will serve a minimum of 11 years.
– March 2007: Hassan Razzaq is jailed for 20 years.
– May 2007: Raza al ul Haq Aslam, who acted as a look-out during the raid, is jailed for eight years after being convicted of robbery during a retrial.
– June 2007: Shah receives an additional nine-year sentence, to run concurrent to his life sentence, for firearms offences committed during a car chase in 2004. Faisal Razzaq receives seven-and-a-half years, to run concurrently to his life term, for possession of firearms in 2004.
– November 2007: Mustaf Jama is arrested and extradited to the UK from Somalia.
– March 2008: Yusuf Jama and Shah are sentenced to four years in prison, concurrent with their minimum 35-year life sentences, for stabbing a fellow prisoner at the high-security Frankland Prison in County Durham.
– January 2009: A jury is unable to reach a verdict in the murder trial of Mustaf Jama.
– May 2009: Gordon Brown, then Prime Minister, unveils a memorial to Pc Beshenivsky at the place where she was shot.
– July 2009: Mustaf Jama is jailed for life with a minimum term of 35 years after being convicted of murder and firearms offences during a retrial at Newcastle Crown Court.
– November 2009: A poster offering a £20,000 reward is released in Pakistan by police trying to trace Piran Ditta Khan on the fourth anniversary of Pc Beshenivsky’s death.
– January 2020: Khan is arrested in Pakistan and appears in an Islamabad court, where his extradition is discussed. At a second hearing, he asks to be tried in his home country.
– April 2023: Khan is extradited from Pakistan and taken into custody at a West Yorkshire police station where he is charged with murder, robbery, two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon. He appears at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on April 13.
– October 2023: Khan pleads guilty to robbery at Leeds Crown Court. He denies murder, two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon.
– February 2024: Khan goes on trial at Leeds Crown Court.
– April 4 2024: Khan is convicted of murder and firearms offences.