Sharon Beshenivsky's colleague Teresa Milburn says she 'didn't stand a chance'

The colleague of a police officer killed on duty in West Yorkshire says there was no indication that a robber had a gun as they "stopped in terror" before being shot at point-blank range.

Pc Sharon Beshenivsky was killed as she and Pc Teresa Milburn responded to a report of a robbery at Universal Express travel agents on Morley Street in Bradford on 18 November 2005.

Pc Milburn was shot in the chest and survived.

Leeds Crown Court has heard a total of seven men were involved in carrying out the raid, with alleged ringleader Piran Ditta Khan the last to face trial.

On Wednesday jurors at Khan's trial heard Pc Milburn's witness statement. She said that 38-year-old Pc Beshenivsky "didn't have a chance" as she died from her injuries just nine months into her police career.

Several steps behind Beshenivsky when the robber fired his first shot, Pc Milburn said she had "instinctively followed Sharon".

She described seeing Pc Beshenivsky collapse and an Asian man emerge from the doorway pointing the gun towards her.

Pc Milburn said she was "terrified" when she was shot. She said: "Sharon stopped in terror. The man had no need to shoot us, none whatsoever.

"If he had waved the gun, if he had given us some warning we would have just gone, but there was no warning. No indication he had a gun, it was just, bang bang."

The statement said: "I felt immense pain. The force of the second shot spun me round. The force was unbelievable.

"My radio was covered in blood and so was the floor where I had been coughing constantly. My body was shaking, I felt like going to sleep and giving in."

Khan, 75, travelled to Pakistan two months after the robbery and evaded arrest until he was detained by Pakistani authorities in 2020 and extradited to the UK last year.

Prosecutors say that although he was not one of the three men who carried out the robbery, and did not leave the safety of a Mercedes SLK that was allegedly being used as a lookout car, he is guilty of Pc Beshenivsky's murder due to his "pivotal" role in planning the raid knowing that loaded weapons were to be used.

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

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