Leeds Crown Court: ‘No evidence’ links murder accused to guns used to shoot PC Sharon Beshenivsky, court told

PC Sharon Beshenivsky and her colleague PC Teresa Milburn were shot at point-blank range as they responded to a raid at Universal Express travel agents in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in November 2005.

PC Beshenivsky died from her injuries while PC Milburn survived being shot in the chest.

Leeds Crown Court has heard seven men were involved in carrying out the robbery, with alleged ringleader Piran Ditta Khan the last to face trial almost two decades on after being extradited from Pakistan.

Prosecutors say that although Khan, 75, is not one of the three armed men who went into Universal Express, and did not leave the safety of a lookout car during the raid, he is guilty of PC Beshenivsky’s murder because of his “pivotal” role in planning the robbery knowing that loaded weapons were to be used.

In his closing speech to jurors on Monday, Khan’s defence barrister Peter Wright KC said: “There is no evidence linking Piran Ditta Khan to (the firearms). None. No DNA or relevant fingerprints.”

Mr Wright reminded jurors of the evidence of Francois Baron, who was working on renovating a “safe house” in Leeds used by the robbers before and after the raid.

He said Mr Baron’s evidence was that the firearms had been produced by one of the group before Khan arrived at the house the day before the robbery.

“There is no evidence firearms were ever brandished or produced in Piran Ditta Khan’s presence or at any time after he arrived,” Mr Wright said.

“The following day, there is no evidence weapons were visible to anyone prior to their production at Universal Express.”

The court has heard Khan was the only one of the robbers who was familiar with Universal Express after using them to send money to family in Pakistan.

Khan has claimed the owner of Universal Express, Mohammad Yousaf, owed him £12,000 and that debt collector Hassan Razzaq offered to help him “get his money back” after the pair met through a business associate.

He told jurors he did not know that a robbery was going to be committed or that weapons were to be used, and believed the men Razzaq sent would at most “slap” the staff in order to recover the cash.

Mr Wright said Khan “was involved in a plot to commit robbery” and “deserves no sympathy for his conduct”.

He told jurors there was no evidence Khan was “the man in charge”, as claimed by prosecutors.

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Mr Wright said the gunning down of the two police officers “by three apparently jubilant assassins is behaviour by them so repugnant to right-thinking members of society that their resulting convictions for murder and possession of firearms are indeed to be welcomed.”

“Similarly, you would need a heart of stone not to be moved by the evidence of the courage these officers showed in discharging their duty to the public on that fateful day and the terrible price they paid,” he told jurors.

Khan denies murder, two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon. He has pleaded guilty to robbery. The trial continues.