Somaiya Begum murder: Uncle found guilty of killing Leeds Beckett student and dumping her body 'like rubbish'

Mohammed Taroos Khan killed Somaiya Begum, 20, during a "violent attack" at her home in Binnie Street, Bradford, on June 25 last year. The Leeds Beckett University student's body was found 11 days after she went missing.

Bradford Crown Court jurors were shown CCTV footage of 53-year-old Khan dragging a large and apparently heavy item from his car onto the waste ground where Ms Begum was found, with prosecutors saying this was the moment he dumped her body. The defendant had denied murdering his niece, but admitted perverting the course of justice by disposing of her body and trying to burn her mobile phone.

On Tuesday, a jury of eight men and four women found him guilty of murder after deliberating for 9.5 hours. Khan looked towards the public gallery, where sobs could be heard, as the verdict was announced.

Ms Begum, who worked as a part-time carer, had been living "happily" with another uncle and her grandmother in Binnie Street after her parents had been issued with a forced marriage protection order, the court heard. This followed her refusal to marry a cousin in Pakistan when she was 16 years old.

Opening the case to jurors just over a week ago, prosecutor Jason Pitter KC said Miss Begum had "met a traumatic death following a violent attack at her home". He said Khan "bundled up" his niece's body and it was "dumped and left to rot and decompose on wasteland like rubbish, such that she was not recognisable".

The prosecutor said the body was found 11 days later wrapped in a rug, tied up with string, on land used as a dumping ground on Fitzwilliam Street, Bradford. He said her body was so decomposed it was not possible to find a cause of death, but there was an 11cm long, metal spike embedded in her chest which had punctured her lung.

Mr Pitter told the jury that Miss Begum was living at the house in Binnie Street with another of her uncles, Dawood Khan, and her grandmother under the terms of a forced marriage protection order. This was due to attempts by her father to force her to marry a cousin from Pakistan "by threat of violence", he said.

The prosecutor said there were "fault lines" in the family, adding that these were partly about "the way in which members of the family interpreted their cultural or religious obligations". Mr Pitter said the defendant was also subject to a restraining order prohibiting him from attending the address in Binnie Street. It had been in place since 2016, after he was convicted of punching his own daughter before holding a knife to her throat and threatening to "chop her up".

Khan, of Thornbury Road, Bradford, declined to give evidence but his barrister Zafar Ali KC said his client had been "summoned" to Binnie Street "to dispose of (Miss Begum's) body" and "knew nothing about the death until after Somaiya had been killed". In his defence closing speech, Mr Ali said Khan had no motive for the killing, unlike her "humiliated" father who had "lost his so-called honour".

The judge, Mr Justice Garnham, will sentence Khan at the same court on Wednesday.