IN LOVING MEMORY OF PC SHARON BESHENIVSKY (14 JANUARY 1967 – 18 NOVEMBER 2005)

            Seven years ago on this day (18 November 2005), PC Sharon Beshenivsky was shot dead in Bradford, England. I will post information about her from Wikipedia before giving my condolences and comments to the family. 

PC Sharon Beshenivsky (14 January 1967–18 November 2005) was a West Yorkshire Police constable shot dead by a criminal gang during a robbery in Bradford on 18 November 2005, becoming the seventh female police officer in Great Britain to be killed on duty.

Another police officer, PC Teresa Millburn, was also shot in the incident, receiving serious wounds to the chest. Millburn had joined the force less than two years earlier; Beshenivsky had served only nine months in the force at the time of her death.

Closed-circuit television cameras tracked a car rushing from the scene and used an automatic number plate recognition system to trace its owners. This led to six suspects being arrested; three were later convicted of murder, robbery and firearms offences; two of manslaughter, robbery and firearms offences; and one of robbery. A seventh suspect remains at large.

Background:

Sharon Beshenivsky had been serving as a police officer for nine months. She had previously been a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) (badge number 268) with West Yorkshire Police. Having been a constable for just nine months, she was classed as a probationer under the supervision of an experienced colleague.

Murder:

On the afternoon of 18 November 2005, Beshenivsky and a colleague and fellow probationer Teresa Millburn responded to reports that an attack alarm had been activated at a travel agent on Morley Street in Bradford. Upon arrival the officers encountered three men who had robbed the agent of £5,405; two were armed with a gun, another with a knife. One of the gunmen fired at them immediately at point-blank range, fatally wounding Beshenivsky in the chest and also hitting Millburn in the chest, before all three men made a getaway in a convoy of cars.

Beshenivsky was the seventh female officer to die in the line of duty in England and Wales, the second female officer to be fatally shot (the first was Yvonne Fletcher in 1984), and the first female officer to die in an 'ordinary' gun crime (Fletcher was shot during a protest at the Libyan embassy in London).

She had three children and two stepchildren, and died on her youngest daughter's fourth birthday. Beshenivsky's funeral took place on 6 January 2006 at Bradford Cathedral.

Arrests

On 25 November 2005, police named Somali brothers Mustaf Jama, aged 25, and Yusaf Jama, aged 19, as well as 24-year-old Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah as prime suspects. Yusaf Jama was arrested in Birmingham the following day and was subsequently charged with murder and robbery. On 12 December 2005, Shah was arrested in Newport, South Wales; he was later also charged with Beshenivsky's murder. Mustaf Jama had fled to Somalia but was extradited two years later.

Convictions:

On 18 December 2005, Yusuf Jama was found guilty of all charges against him, including the murder of Sharon Beshenivsky. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should serve a tariff of thirty-five years before being considered for parole, more than double the recommended minimum term imposed on most suspects found guilty of a single murder. This was expected to keep Yusuf Jama imprisoned until at least 2040 and the age of sixty.

Muzzaker Shah was also sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended tariff of thirty-five years, which was also expected to keep him in prison until at least 2040 and the age of sixty.

Faisal Razzaq, a 25-year-old from London, was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should serve at least eleven years before being considered for parole. This was expected to keep him imprisoned until at least 2017 and the age of 36. He had driven the lead car of the gang's convoy from Leeds to Bradford and acted as a lookout during the robbery.

On 2 March 2007, Hassan Razzaq, the 26-year-old brother of Faisal, was also convicted of manslaughter and was sentenced to twenty years in prison. He had also acted as a lookout. Raza Ul-Haq Aslam was a third lookout and was sentenced to eight years in prison for a single robbery offence.

All of the suspects except Aslam were also found guilty of robbery and a series of firearms offences.

On 1 November 2007, Mustaf Jama was extradited from Somalia after an undercover Home Office operation and taken into police custody at Bridewell police station in Leeds. He was charged the next day with the murder of Beshenivsky, appeared before Leeds magistrates, and was remanded into custody. On 22 July 2009 at Newcastle Crown Court, Mustaf Jama was found guilty of murder and was also told that he would serve at least 35 years in prison, which is expected to keep him in prison until 2044 and the age of 64. It later transpired that he had been released from prison (having been convicted of burglary and robbery offences) just six months before Beshenivsky's murder and that he had been considered for deportation to his native Somalia but Home Office officials ruled it was "too dangerous".

Appeals:

Yusuf Jama and Muzzaker Shah appealed for their sentences to be reduced. The High Court heard their appeals but agreed with the trial judge's recommended minimum term for both men and rejected the appeals.

In November 2010, Mustaf Jama made an application for permission to appeal his sentence. The Court of Appeal rejected his application in March 2011.

Hewan Gordon was jailed for eighteen months in 2007 for helping Shah evade capture after Beshenivsky's murder. In 2010 he won an appeal against a government bid to deport him to his native Somalia. His appeal was understood to have been made on human rights grounds and drew heavy criticism from police, politicians and Beshenivsky's family.

Unapprehended suspect:

The alleged mastermind of the robbery, Piran Ditta Khan, remains unapprehended. It has been reported that the 50-year-old fled to Pakistan. A reward of £20,000 has been offered for information leading to his arrest.

Subsequent events:

In June 2007, Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah received an additional nine years to his sentence for firearms offences committed during a car chase in 2004.

In December 2007, Yusuf Jama was also convicted of conspiracy to rape and handed an additional twelve years to his sentence. The case related to the gang rape of a woman at a house party in Birmingham some days after Beshenivsky's murder.

In March 2008, both Shah and Yusuf Jama received a further four years imprisonment for wounding with intent after they stabbed another inmate at Frankland prison in Brasside, County Durham.

Faisal Razzaq was handed an additional seven-and-a-half year sentence in June 2007 for possessing prohibited firearms in 2004.

On 18 August 2006 the rugby league club Bradford Bulls made a presentation on the pitch at their home stadium during the half-time interval of a match with Castleford Tigers, in Beshenivsky's honour. Her widower Paul, along with the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police Colin Cramphorn, were guests as Bradford Bulls chairman Peter Hood unveiled a memorial bench in her honour, which was to be placed in the club's reception area. On 8 May 2009, a memorial to Beshenivsky was unveiled at the location of her death. At the unveiling, then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to the officer's "dedication, professionalism and courage". Michael Winner, chairman of the Police Memorial Trust, also praised Beshenivsky and police officers across the country, saying: "Take them away and there's total anarchy and we are devoured by the forces of evil."

In November 2008, the far right British National Party was condemned for using the murder as an example of racially motivated crime (a category it did not specifically C

Comments and Condolences:

            As mentioned in my other posts on British Police Officers who were murdered in the line of duty, like Nina Mackay and the 3 policemen at Shepherd’s Bush. I did emphasize that the death penalty could have saved their lives or at least, bring the cop-killers to justice. If these murders had occurred before the 1960s, all the six gang members would have been hung, even if one of them fired the fatal shot. That was why during the 1950s, many gang members used unarmed guns.

            This case nearly moved me to tears when I learnt that PC Sharon died on her youngest daughter’s fourth birthday. I walked in the shoes of that daughter of hers and I know the pain that she will always be reminded of her mother’s death on her birthday, I pray that she will get comfort by friends and her families. I was a little bit relief that former Police Commissioner, John Stevens changed from being an opponent to a supporter of the death penalty, just like me.  

At the same time, I felt angry at the European Court of Human Rights and the European Union who only lecture Iran on the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. They should be lecturing the gang members who shot PC Sharon Beshenivsky, if they truly claim to be against barbarism, which is murder, not execution.