Bradford man found guilty of murdering niece after she refused forced marriage

A man has been found guilty of murdering his 20-year-old niece in Bradford after she refused to marry her cousin in Pakistan.

Mohammed Taroos Khan, 53, violent attacked Somaiya Begum at her home on Binnie Street on 25th June 2022.

The Leeds Beckett University student's body was found 11 days later on wasteland on Fitzwilliam Street.

A jury at Bradford Crown Court was shown CCTV footage of Khan dragging a large item from his car onto the ground where Somaiya was found, with prosecutors saying this was the moment he dumped her body ‘like rubbish’.

The defendant denied murdering his niece but admitted perverting the course of justice by disposing of her body and trying to burn her mobile phone.

This afternoon the jury found him guilty of murder after deliberating for nine and a half hours.

Sobs could be heard in the public gallery as the verdict was read out.

The court heard how Somaiya, who worked as a part-time carer, had been living with another uncle and her grandmother at the time after her parents had been issued with a forced marriage protection order.

This followed her refusal to marry a cousin in Pakistan when she was 16 years old.

Prosecutor Jason Pitter KC 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".

He said the body was found 11 days later wrapped in a rug and tied up with string. 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.

Mr Pitter said the defendant was also subject to a restraining order prohibiting him from attending the address in Binnie Street.

He explained to the jury that this order 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 at his trial but his barrister Zafar Ali KC told the jury 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".

Khan is due to be sentenced tomorrow.