PC Sharon Beshenivsky: The fight to win justice for murdered West Yorkshire Police officer

On Thursday 4 April Piran Ditta Khan was found guilty of the murder of West Yorkshire Police officer Sharon Beshenivsky in 2005.

He was the last of seven men convicted for their roles in an armed robbery at a travel agents in Bradford which ended in tragedy.

ITV News reporter Katie Oscroft looks back at the case and the 19-year quest for justice.

An unremarkable stone memorial is now the only reminder of an incident which dominated national and international headlines and prompted a global manhunt lasting almost 15 years.

It marks the spot outside Universal Express travel agents in Bradford where Sharon Beshenivsky died in 2005.

She had been a police officer for just nine months when she answered a routine call towards the end of an uneventful shift. A call which would ultimately cost her her life.

PC Beshenivsky and her colleague, Teresa Milburn, had no inkling of what was to face them when they arrived at the premises in Morley Street.

Unbeknown to them, inside, three men armed with a machine gun, a pistol and a knife were demanding thousands of pounds allegedly owed to gang ringleader Piran Ditta Khan.

Having discovered that the business did not have such quantities of cash on site, the men were forced to leave with only £5,000.

As they did so, they were confronted by PC Beshenivsky. The 38-year-old mother-of-three had been the first out of the patrol car – and was, fatefully, the first to cross their path.

The gang had no hesitation in using their weapons. PC Beshenivsky was shot at point-blank range as PC Milburn watched in horror. PC Milburn herself was also shot.

But it was her colleague who "didn’t stand a chance" PC Milburn would later tell a court.

As she called for help – barely able to speak – four more members of the gang were on the lookout in the surrounding streets, including Piran Ditta Khan. All seven fled.

The date was 18 November – the day PC Beshenivsky's daughter Lydia turned four.

As her mother lay dying in the street, Lydia and her family waited for Sharon Beshenivsky to come home for her party.

Amid an outpouring of anger and grief, a huge investigation was launched which would last almost 19 years and cross international boundaries.

'She just fell down'

Hundreds of people in Bradford became aware of the aftermath of the shooting as cordons were set up, roads were closed and emergency vehicles descended on the scene.

But two men who worked in a repair business across the road from Universal Express – and still do to this day – had seen everything.

They feared for their own lives after hearing gunshots and clearly seeing Sharon Beshenivsky collapse on to the pavement.

The robbers ran past Robert Brand and John Brambani. The pair were terrified they would be fired on next.

Mr Brambani said: "The gunmen just burst out on to the street, they shot the policewoman and she just fell down.

"Then they ran towards us. They were just ten yards away, it was very frightening, it stayed with us. We can see the plaque from here and we remember it all the time."

Mr Brand added: "We were down at the police station later that evening giving a statement when the news came through that she had died. You could see the shock, there were solemn faces everywhere, it was very sad."

The investigation

Twenty-four hours after the shooting, the police officer in charge of the investigation, Andy Brennan, addressed a packed news conference.

"We will track the culprits down. Every police officer in the UK will support us in finding all those responsible," he said.

He could not have known at the time that his pledge would take 19 years to come to ultimate fruition.

Behind the scenes, the detective faced the challenge of galvanising a team not only investigating a murder, but grieving the loss of one of their own.

He told ITV News: "During the first briefing with my team on the evening of Friday 19 November 2005 I said to them, 'we will have our time to mourn Sharon. We won’t forget her but the best thing we can do for her now is to find all those responsible for what has taken place'."

The pressure to solve the crime was heightened by the personal connections.

Recalling his first meeting with Sharon Beshenivsky’s husband, Paul, Mr Brennan said: "It was very emotional. It was common knowledge that Sharon wanted to go early to get things ready for [Lydia's] party.

"I tried to blank it out. Being a father myself, you can imagine the grief and the pain that Paul’s going through and I just tried to put that to one side and to give Paul and his family the confidence that we would leave no stone unturned to find out who did this to Paul’s wife and the children’s mother," he said.

The sense that this was a very personal crime was reinforced as uniformed officers openly wept as PC Beshenivsky was laid to rest following a funeral at Bradford Cathedral on 6 January 2006.

Meanwhile, the investigation moved at pace.

On 25 November 2005 police had named Somali brothers Mustaf Jama, aged 25, and Yusaf Jama, aged 19, as well as 24-year-old Pakistani Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah, as prime suspects.

Yusaf Jama was arrested in Birmingham the following day. He was charged with murder and robbery.

On 12 December Shah was arrested in Newport, South Wales. He was also charged with murder.

A year later both were jailed for life after being found guilty of murdering PC Beshenivsky.

Mustaf Jama had fled to Somalia. It would take two years for him to be extradited to face justice and another two years before, in July 2009, he was jailed for life for murder.

By then three other men – brothers Faisal and Hassan Razzaq and Raza Ul-Haq Aslam – were also behind bars for their parts in the robbery.

When Det Supt Brennan left West Yorkshire Police, six of the seven men involved had been convicted of their crimes.

But he would have to wait several years before he would see the seventh – the robbery's ringleader Piran Ditta Khan – face judgement.

The hunt for Piran Ditta Khan

Known as "uncle" by his accomplices, Khan had partied with the other men the night before the raid on Universal Express. They drank champagne and vodka and visited a brothel.

While later claiming that the robbery was the unintended consequence of a throwaway comment about being owed £12,000 by the business owner, in reality Khan was in on the plot from the start – promising his fellow robbers they stood to bring back £50-100,000 from their trip to Bradford.

He was in the convoy of three cars which set off the next day from a safe house in Leeds to carry out the raid.

Khan waited in a lookout car around the corner and ate a sandwich as the violent events unfolded.

When the gang returned all but empty-handed, they panicked. In the hours after the shooting some burned their clothes and changed their appearance. All of them fled.

Having spent weeks in hiding, Khan flew to Islamabad in Pakistan 16 days after PC Beshenivsky's funeral.

He would later tell police he went to attend his son’s wedding and didn't return because he knew he was under suspicion and feared the consequences.

A reward of £20,000 was offered for information leading to his arrest.

In 2014, nine years after PC Beshenivsky died, police renewed their appeal for information.

At the time, Det Supt Simon Atkinson – the officer then in charge of the case – renewed his force's vow that no stone would be left unturned in the quest to give PC Beshenivsky's family closure.

And he made a direct appeal to the people of Pakistan to help bring Khan to justice.

But it was another six years until, on 14 January 2020, Khan was finally arrested and a further three years before he was extradited to the UK to be charged with murder.

In video footage released by West Yorkshire Police of Khan being booked into custody, the now grey-haired, bearded suspect could be heard saying: "I never murdered anyone."

• 'I never murdered anyone': Khan is booked into custody

He later admitted his part in the robbery, but continued to deny responsibility for PC Beshenivsky's death.

But as former detective Andy Brennan said: "It was solely down to him that the travel agents was targeted and he was also responsible for pulling that team together.

"Irrespective of whether his finger was on that trigger, Khan was responsible for what took place that day."

On 4 April 2024, almost 19 years after his part in the events which claimed the life of PC Sharon Beshenivsky, and at the age of 75, Khan was forced to answer for his crimes, his attempts to evade justice finally over.

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