PC Sharon Beshenivsky’s killer is jailed for 40 years

PC Sharon Beshenivsky’s killer has been jailed for 40 years today, set to die behind bars after he went on the run to Pakistan following the unarmed officer’s murder.

Piran Ditta Khan, the mastermind behind the bungled armed robbery which led to the officer being gunned down in the street, was the last of the seven men involved in the robbery to be convicted.

PC Beshenivsky, 38, was tragically shot on her daughter’s fourth birthday while interrupting a raid at Universal Express travel agents in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in November 2005 – just nine months into her job.

She and her colleague, PC Teresa Milburn – both unarmed – were shot at point-blank range by one of the three men who had just carried out the robbery.

PC Beshenivsky collapsed onto the floor with an injury which was immediately fatal, and her colleague radioed for help while coughing up blood.

The judge today praised PC Beshenivsky’s ‘courage’ in responding to the call ‘when she and her colleague had no way of knowing what they would be confronted with when they got there’.

‘PC Sharon Beshenivsky’s courage and commitment to duty that day cost her her life,’ he said.

Khan, 75, spent 15 years on the run and evaded arrest until he was apprehended in Pakistan four years ago.

The murdered officer’s family watched from court Khan was sentenced after almost 20 years, and said outside court ‘justice has been served’ after a ’19-year journey seeking the truth.’ 

Khan was found guilty of murdering PC Beshenivsky, as well as two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon. He pleaded guilty to robbery.

The judge said he would not impose a whole life order, but that the sentence would be life with a minimum term of 40 years. 

Sentencing Khan today, the judge said the murdered officer had been discussing her daughter’s fourth birthday party when she heard the call for assistance, ‘so we can say for absolute certain her thoughts were for her family very shortly before she died’.

Mr Justice Hilliard told Khan today: ‘I am sure you first had the idea of robbing Universal Express and explored that possibility with Hassan Razzaq.

‘You knew the robbers would have to be smartly dressed to get through the security access area.

‘You had told the robbers they could expect to get away with anywhere between £50,000 and £100,000.

‘I am sure there was no dispute about money between you and the owners of the business as you allege.’

He said as it happened, the business’s takings that day had already been banked and so the robbers got away with just over £5,000.

‘You did not yourself enter the premises of Universal Express armed with weapons, however I am sure you were the first to conceive of this robbery,’ the judge told him. 

Mr Justice Hilliard said because Khan had fled to Pakistan after the murder at the age of 57 he had ‘spent the rest of your 50s and all your 60s at liberty when you should have spent those years in custody’.

‘That is a considerable advantage you obtained for yourself. You are now being sentenced at the age of 75, with a number of almost inevitable health conditions.’

The judge told Khan: ‘You will inevitably spend the remainder of your life in custody, but that is a consequence of sentencing a man of your age for a crime of this particular gravity.

He said it would not be right to reduce the sentence due to Khan’s health conditions.

‘You are responsible for the fact that you are being sentenced at the age of 75 and not at a younger age.

‘You have had your younger and healthier years at liberty because you chose to leave the country when you feared you were about to be arrested.’

A statement on behalf of the Beshenivsky family read: ‘The 18th November 2005 is a date that will remain etched in our memories forever. 

‘What started as a happy, special day to celebrate Lydia’s fourth birthday, was a day that ended in devastating, sad consequences due to the callous actions of Piran Ditta Khan and his associates. 

‘Since then, the 18th November is no longer a birthday celebration (for Lydia and us all) but now a day of remembrance and memorial.

‘That was the day the lives of our family and those close to Sharon changed forever. As well as Sharon’s friend and colleague Teresa, and her family.

‘November 2005 was the start of an almost 19-year journey. A journey seeking the truth and justice for Sharon, who was not just a police officer, but a loving mum, wife, daughter, sister, and a friend to many.

‘Our journey seeking justice and closure of the judicial process is now at an end. This journey has and continues to be difficult for us all. Enduring several trials over the years has been hard, each one of them taking us back to the very beginning, which made us feel like we had lost Sharon all over again. 

‘And now we once again pick up the pieces of our lives and continue forward as Sharon would have wanted us all to do.

‘We would like to thank all those who have been involved in the investigation and criminal justice process for their tireless dedication, perseverance, support, and attention to detail which has made this day possible. 

‘We respect the findings of the court and thank the jury for the diligence and care they took over considering all the evidence during the eight-week trial.

‘No prison sentence could ever compensate us for Sharon’s life and our loss, but we will move forward knowing that justice has been served.’

Peter Wright, defending, said due to Khan’s age, his ‘final years, in all probability, are to be spent in custody with the forbidding prospect that he will die there’.

During the trial, jurors heard Khan was the only one of the group who was familiar with Universal Express and had used the firm in the past to send money to family in Pakistan.

He flew to Pakistan two months after PC Beshenivsky’s death and remained at liberty there until he was arrested by Pakistani authorities in January 2020 and then extradited to the UK last year.

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 he was trying to reclaim £12,000 owed to him by Universal Express’s owner and that debt collector Hassan Razzaq, who was later convicted of the manslaughter of PC Beshenivsky, had offered to help get his money back.

Prosecutors said there was no evidence of this.

The husband of the murdered police officer said coping with the trial of the robbery mastermind has ‘been like losing Sharon all over again.’

Paul Beshenivsky, a father-of-four who has since remarried, said in a personal statement read to the court before the judge passed sentence: ‘I hope this is the closing chapter in the criminal process and justice will be served.’

He said he was hopeful the sentencing hearing will give him and his family ‘some degree of closure.’

Mr Beshenivsky added he would ‘never forget Sharon’ and she would ‘always live’ through her children.

The 61-year-old said his wife was killed on her daughter’s fourth birthday in a ‘most brutal, callous and futile way.’

‘That she never came home was down to the actions of one person Piran Ditta Khan. 

‘If Piran Ditta Khan had not organised the robbery Sharon wouldn’t have been shot dead and she would have come back to celebrate with Lydia.’

He continued: ‘She was doing her duty as a police officer and the job she loved to do. We were all very proud of her.

‘The grief and upset we all suffered was unimaginable. I had to try and continue to look after the children as before and I was really struggling in the early days.’

He said family and friends helped him cope but he also had to continue his business as a landscape gardener to ‘provide for my family’ and that was ‘very difficult.’

Mr Beshenivsky spoke about the strain of living in the public eye since the shocking murder 19 years ago. Trials of the robbers followed in 2006, 2009 and this year.

He said the ‘stages of our grief’ have been ‘on public display.’ ‘It has been like losing Sharon all over again.’

In a statement he wrote back in 2009, which was also read to the court, Mr Beshenivsky described how they were a ‘happy, ordinary family’ when his wife was shot dead in November 2005 in Bradford.

He recalled being driven from home to Bradford Royal Infirmary during his daughter’s birthday celebrations to be told Sharon was dead.

‘I had to tell the children Sharon was dead.’ Adding: ‘Telling them was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.’

Mr Beshenivsky said he has had to do the roles of ‘both mum and dad.’

‘There will always be a huge gap in all our lives without Sharon as the children have had to grow up without their mother.

‘Sharon can never be replaced, she was a special person, things will never be the same without her.’

Leeds Crown Court previously heard that although Khan did not leave the safety of a lookout car throughout the raid, he played a ‘pivotal’ role in planning it and knew loaded weapons would be used.

Prosecutors said this made him guilty of PC Beshenivsky’s murder ‘as surely as if he had pulled the trigger himself’.

During the trial, jurors heard Khan 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.

He flew to Pakistan two months after PC Beshenivsky’s death and remained at liberty there until he was arrested by Pakistani authorities in January 2020 and then extradited to the UK last year.

Khan told jurors he did not know that a robbery was going to be carried out, or that weapons were going to be taken.

He claimed he was owed £12,000 by Universal Express’s owner and that debt collector Hassan Razzaq, who was later convicted of manslaughter over PC Beshenivsky’s death, had offered to help get his money back. Prosecutors said there was no evidence of this.

The court heard PC Beshenivsky’s injury was immediately fatal. PC Milburn, who activated her personal radio and called for help as she was coughing up blood, survived her injuries after hospital treatment.

The daughter of the murdered police officer previously said she is ‘relieved’ her mother’s killer will finally be jailed, but she admitted ‘that doesn’t really fix the whole in my heart’.  

In a victim personal statement read at Leeds Crown Court, Lydia Beshenivsky said she had a vague memory of a car arriving at her house during her birthday party and thought it was her mother arriving home.

‘I later learned it was the police coming to take my dad away. At that moment I had no idea where he was going.

‘It did not concern me at that time as I was too busy playing and eating cake.’

Ms Beshenivsky said she was told by others that she ‘screamed her head off’ after being told that her mother had died, but has no memory of it.

‘I remember asking when my mum was coming home and being confused about why she wasn’t coming home to see us,’ she said.

‘I have little to no memory of my mum. Growing up, I had to rely on my mum’s friends telling me about her and the things she liked to do.

‘Even now I have to look at photos to remind me of my mum.’

Ms Beshenivsky said she was proud of her mother for ‘doing the job she loved’.

She added: ‘There will always be a void in my life – a void that should have been filled with my mum’s presence but as a result of violent, callous actions by you, Piran Ditta Khan, and your associates that day, you robbed me of a future and precious time with my mum.

‘Every birthday is a reminder of what happened that day. It has recently been Mother’s Day, and while my friends are celebrating with their mums, I sadly can never do that.’

She previously told ITV she hoped she would be able to ‘find some peace’ when Khan is sentenced.

‘There’s relief that he’s actually going to be behind bars, but that doesn’t really change my heart and fix the hole in my heart is forever going to be like that,’ she said.

‘But on the day of the sentencing, I will be glad to see the back of them.

‘With everything that was going on, I couldn’t find the words to put on the headstone. I don’t think any of us could, but hopefully, after all this is finished, we will get a headstone and really find some peace.’

PC Beshenivsky had only been an officer for nine months when she was died in the line of duty.

Lydia usually spends her birthday mourning the loss of her mother at her memorial in Bradford.

Khan was found guilty of murder at Leeds Crown Court on 4 April.

Hassan Razzaq and his brother Faisal Razzaq were later found guilty of manslaughter, robbery and firearms offences. Raza Ul-Haq Aslam was convicted of robbery.

The three armed men – Muzzaker Shah and brothers Yusuf Jama and Mustaf Jama -who went into Universal Express – were convicted of murder, robbery and firearms offences.

Faisal Razzaq served just 11 years of a life sentence for manslaughter for his role in the murder of PC Sharon Beshenivsky before he was released from jail in 2017.

Razzaq was the gang’s lookout during the armed robbery of a travel agents in Bradford in November 2005.

But last month, he was spotted with a £20,000 luxury Mercedes. Upon his release in 2017, Razzaq crudely celebrated his release by posting on Facebook: ‘Guess who’s back?’