Sharon Beshenivsky
Encyclopedia
PC Sharon Beshenivsky 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 camera
s 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.
. Upon arrival the officers encountered three men who had robbed the agent of £5,405; one was armed with a gun, another with a knife. The gunman 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
.
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.
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 thirty-five years in prison. 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".
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.
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."
West Yorkshire Police
West Yorkshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing West Yorkshire in England. It is the fourth largest force in England and Wales by number of officers, with 5671 officers....
constable shot dead by a criminal gang during a robbery in Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
on 18 November 2005, becoming the seventh female police officer in Great Britain to be killed on duty.
Another police officer
Police officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
, 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 camera
Closed-circuit television camera
Closed-circuit television cameras can produce images or recordings for surveillance purposes, and can be either video cameras, or digital stills cameras...
s tracked a car rushing from the scene and used an automatic number plate recognition
Automatic number plate recognition
Automatic number plate recognition is a mass surveillance method that uses optical character recognition on images to read the license plates on vehicles. They can use existing closed-circuit television or road-rule enforcement cameras, or ones specifically designed for the task...
system to trace its owners. This led to six suspects being arrested; three were later convicted of murder
Murder in English law
Murder is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. It is considered the most serious form of homicide, in which one person kills another either intending to cause death or intending to cause serious injury .-Actus reus:The definition of the actus reus Murder is an offence under the...
, robbery
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
and firearms offences; two of manslaughter
Manslaughter in English law
In the English law of homicide, manslaughter is a less serious offence than murder, the differential being between levels of fault based on the mens rea . In England and Wales, the usual practice is to prefer a charge of murder, with the judge or defence able to introduce manslaughter as an option...
, 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 only nine months and was therefore 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 BradfordBradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
. Upon arrival the officers encountered three men who had robbed the agent of £5,405; one was armed with a gun, another with a knife. The gunman 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
England and Wales
England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...
, 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
Bradford Cathedral
Bradford Cathedral , full name Cathedral Church of St Peter, is situated in the heart of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England, on a site used for Christian worship since the 8th century when missionaries based in Dewsbury evangelised the region...
.
Arrests
On 25 November 2005, police named SomaliSomalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
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
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
the following day and was subsequently charged with murder
Murder in English law
Murder is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. It is considered the most serious form of homicide, in which one person kills another either intending to cause death or intending to cause serious injury .-Actus reus:The definition of the actus reus Murder is an offence under the...
and robbery
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
. On 12 December 2005, Shah was arrested in Newport
Newport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...
, 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.| Suspect | Convictions | Sentence |
| Mustaf Jama | Murder Murder in English law Murder is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. It is considered the most serious form of homicide, in which one person kills another either intending to cause death or intending to cause serious injury .-Actus reus:The definition of the actus reus Murder is an offence under the... ; robbery Robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear.... ; firearms |
Life with 35-year tariff |
| Yusuf Jama | Murder; robbery; firearms | Life with 35-year tariff |
| Muzzaker Shah | Murder; robbery; firearms | Life with 35-year tariff |
| Faisal Razzaq | Manslaughter Manslaughter in English law In the English law of homicide, manslaughter is a less serious offence than murder, the differential being between levels of fault based on the mens rea . In England and Wales, the usual practice is to prefer a charge of murder, with the judge or defence able to introduce manslaughter as an option... ; robbery; firearms |
Life with 11-year tariff |
| Hassan Razzaq | Manslaughter; robbery; firearms | 20 years |
| Raza Ul-Haq Aslam | Robbery | 8 years |
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
Manslaughter in English law
In the English law of homicide, manslaughter is a less serious offence than murder, the differential being between levels of fault based on the mens rea . In England and Wales, the usual practice is to prefer a charge of murder, with the judge or defence able to introduce manslaughter as an option...
. 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
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
. 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
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
Crown Court
Crown Court
The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
, Mustaf Jama was found guilty of murder and was also told that he would serve at least thirty-five years in prison. It later transpired that he had been released from prison (having been convicted of burglary
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
and robbery offences) just six months before Beshenivsky's murder and that he had been considered for deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
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 CourtHigh Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
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
Court of Appeal of England and Wales
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...
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 chaseCar chase
A car chase is the vehicular pursuit of a suspect by law enforcement officers. Car chases are often captured on film and broadcast due to the availability of video footage recorded by police cars and police and media helicopters participating in the chase...
in 2004.
In December 2007, Yusuf Jama was also convicted of conspiracy to rape
Rape in English law
-Statute:The offence is created by of the Sexual Offences Act 2003:-Consent, s.1 & & :This expression is defined by section 74. The evidential and conclusive presumptions created by sections 75 and 76 apply to this offence...
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
Grievous bodily harm
Grievous bodily harm is a term of art used in English criminal law which has become synonymous with the offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861....
with intent after they stabbed another inmate at Frankland prison
Frankland (HM Prison)
HM Prison Frankland is a Category A men's prison located in the village of Brasside in County Durham, England. Frankland is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...
in Brasside
Brasside
Brasside is a suburb of Durham, located in the civil parish of Framwellgate Moor in County Durham, England. It is situated to the north of Durham, and is near to the villages of Pity Me and Newton Hall....
, County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
.
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
Bradford Bulls
Bradford Bulls is a professional rugby league club based in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. They play in the European Super League and are currently joint 10th in the league....
made a presentation on the pitch at their home stadium during the half-time interval of a match with Castleford Tigers
Castleford Tigers
Castleford Tigers are a professional rugby league club based in Castleford in West Yorkshire, England. They participate in the professional European competition Super League. They are sometimes known as 'Cas', 'Cas Tigers', 'Classy Cas' or the 'Black & Amber'...
, in Beshenivsky's honour. Her widower Paul, along with the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police Colin Cramphorn
Colin Cramphorn
Colin Ralph Cramphorn CBE, QPM, DL, FRSA was the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police from September 2002 to November 2006....
, were guests as Bradford Bulls chairman Peter Hood
Peter Hood
-References:...
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
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
paid tribute to the officer's "dedication, professionalism and courage". Michael Winner
Michael Winner
Michael Robert Winner is a British film director and producer, active in both Europe and the United States, also known as a food critic for the Sunday Times.-Early life and early career :...
, chairman of the Police Memorial Trust
Police Memorial Trust
The Police Memorial Trust is a charitable organisation founded in 1984 and based in London. The trust's objective is to erect memorials to British police officers killed in the line of duty, at or near the spot where they died, thereby acting as a permanent reminder to the public of the sacrifice...
, 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."