A former Aberdeen restaurant boss has been convicted for the murder of a policewoman who was shot dead during an armed robbery.
Piran Ditta Khan, 75, fled the UK after the death of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky, 38, but was eventually put on trial two decades later after being extradited from Pakistan.
He planned the raid that killed the constable and severely wounded her colleague Pc Teresa Milburn, a jury at Leeds Crown Court was told.
The two officers were gunned down as they responded to the heist at family-run Universal Express travel agents in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in November 2005.
Khan, who was known to friends and associates in Aberdeen as Peter, had lived in the city from the early 1980s until 1998 while he worked in the Shish Mahal restaurant on Union Street and launched Crown Palace on Justice Mill Lane, which closed in April 1998 after a fire.
Aberdeen restaurateur was mastermind of armed robbery plot
On Thursday, he was convicted of murder by a majority of 10-1 after 11 jurors deliberated for almost 19 hours over four days.
Khan was also found guilty of two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, also by a majority of 10-1.
The jury unanimously convicted him of two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon.
Khan had also pled guilty to robbery, saying it was because the armed men “went there for my money” and it was “my mistake to tell them”.
He is the last of the seven robbers to be convicted almost two decades on from the shocking tragedy.
Muzzaker Shah and brothers Yusuf Jama and Mustaf Jama – the three armed men who went into Universal Express – had already been convicted of murder, robbery and firearms offences.
Hassan Razzaq and his brother Faisal Razzaq were previously found guilty of manslaughter, robbery and firearms offences, and Raza Ul-Haq Aslam was convicted of robbery.
But prosecutors claimed that former takeaway boss Khan was the group’s ringleader.
Although he did not leave the safety of a lookout car during the raid, he played a “pivotal” role in planning it and knew that loaded firearms were to be used.
Jurors were told this made him guilty of the police constable’s murder “as surely as if he had pulled the trigger on that pistol himself”.
He was the only one of the group who was familiar with Universal Express and had used them in the past to send money to family in Pakistan, the court heard.
Khan told jurors he had no knowledge that a robbery was going to be carried out, or that weapons were going to be taken.
He claimed the business’s owner, Mohammmad Yousaf, owed him £12,000 and that debt collector Hassan Razzaq offered to get his money back after the pair met through a business associate.
Khan said he thought the men Razzaq sent would “intimidate” the staff at Universal Express, or at worst, “slap them”.
Gang of robbers expected to get away with £100k but only left with £5,400
Prosecutor Robert Smith KC said Khan’s claim of being defrauded was an “entirely false” attempt to explain why he was in Bradford at the time of the robbery and murder.
Jurors heard Khan, who was living in Enfield, London, at the time, was driven to Yorkshire by Razzaq on a reconnaissance trip five days before the raid.
The day before the robbery, they travelled up again to a “safe house” in Leeds where they spent the night.
Francois Baron, who was working on renovating the house, later told police he had heard the robbers discussing the plot in one of the bedrooms.
Mr Baron said he heard gunman Muzzaker Shah asking Khan: “Uncle, is it safe?”
Khan was said to have replied: “Yes, it’s safe. Genuine”.
Jurors heard Shah asked: “How much can we get?” and Khan replied: “Minimum £50,000. Maximum target 100 grand”.
The group were said to be “elated” and “confident,” shouting: “Let’s go do it”.
Prosecutors said the three robbers who were to go into Universal Express then changed into smart clothing, telling jurors this was because Khan knew they would have to appear “respectable” for staff to let them in through the electronically locked door.
In three cars, the group then drove in convoy to Bradford, where Muzzaker Shah and brothers Yusuf Jama and Mustaf Jama went into the travel agents posing as customers.
After initially asking about plane tickets, the three men jumped over the counter and started demanding money, striking several of the staff with their weapons, tying their hands and threatening to “shoot the youngest” if they did not hand over cash.
The group demanded £100,000, later saying they would not leave with less than £50,000, jurors heard.
Waqas Yousaf, Mohammad Yousaf’s son, told the robbers they did not have that kind of money and managed to press an alarm which alerted the police.
The robbers shouted “the Feds are here” before fleeing with around £5,400, with one of them gunning down the officers as they approached the doors of Universal Express.
Pc Beshenivsky, who was a mum of three children and two step-children, was gunned down on her youngest daughter’s fourth birthday.
She had only been an officer for nine months when she died from her injuries.
Pc Milburn, who survived being shot in the chest, told police the pair “didn’t have a chance” to get away from the gunman, and that they would have run away if he had given them any warning.
Khan fled overseas two months after tragic murder but was extradited
Jurors heard Khan evaded arrest by fleeing the UK two months after the murder, in January 2006, on a flight from Heathrow to Islamabad.
He remained free there until he was arrested and detained by Pakistani authorities in January 2020.
After his arrest, Khan appeared in an Islamabad court, where his extradition was discussed and he asked to be tried in his home country.
The court heard he arrived in the UK last April after an extradition request from the British government and was brought to Leeds by West Yorkshire Police.
Khan told his trial he initially went to Pakistan for his son’s wedding but did not return after “getting scared” when he saw news reports saying he was a wanted man.
During proceedings, jurors heard of Khan’s previous convictions between 1978 and 1999 for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, assault and possessing an offensive weapon.
The accused said one assault conviction from 1980 related to “shoving and slapping” between him and a woman who “wanted to marry him” while another from 1990 was an incident where some customers were “misbehaving” in his restaurant and he hit one of them “so they would run away”.
He told the court he was “not a naughty person” and did not cause trouble, but would “defend himself”.
The judge, Mr Justice Hilliard, thanked the jury for hearing the case of a police officer who “set off for work that morning and never came home, all for doing her job to try and keep us all safe”.
“Even after so many years it hardly bears thinking about,” he said.
“The only sentence for murder is imprisonment for life, I have to set the minimum term.”
Outside court, Detective Superintendent Marc Bowes of West Yorkshire Police said 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,” the Det Supt said.
“This verdict is the culmination of 18 years of hard work, tenacious grit and determination to bring Khan before the courts.”
Khan, who showed no visible emotion when the verdicts were delivered, will be sentenced on a date that is still to be set.
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