Man jailed for murder of PC Sharon Peshenivsky in Bradford died from cancer, inquest hears
Piran Ditta Khan was the mastermind of an armed robbery at a Bradford travel agents that ended in Pc Beshenivsky being shot dead in 2005.
Last updated 3rd Dec 2025
A pensioner died in prison from lung cancer less than a year after he was convicted of murdering police officer Sharon Beshenivsky, an inquest has heard.
Piran Ditta Khan was the mastermind of an armed robbery at a Bradford travel agents that ended in Pc Beshenivsky being shot dead in 2005.
He was jailed in May 2024 with a 40-year minimum term after nearly 15 years on the run, becoming the final member of the gang to be convicted.
Khan died on February 21 at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire, aged 76.
Assistant coroner John Hobson opened the inquest into Khan's death at Wakefield Coroner's Court on Wednesday.
Mr Hobson said Khan was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in June 2024 and was undergoing chemotherapy.
He told the court that on February 3, the prisoner was taken to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield with "stroke-like symptoms" and doctors found he was suffering from brain metastasis, which is when cancer spreads to the brain.
Khan remained at the hospital for eight days before he was transferred to the medical wing of the prison, where he received palliative care until his death on February 21.
Mr Hobson said the cause of the death was bronchial pneumonia caused by "multiple cerebral infarctions" associated with cancer of the right lung.
The hearing was adjourned after five minutes and Mr Hobson said a full inquest will take place at a date to be fixed.
Pc Beshenivsky was murdered on her daughter's fourth birthday while interrupting a robbery at family-run Universal Express travel agents in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in November 2005.
Khan fled to Pakistan after the killing at the age of 57, and evaded justice until he was caught in 2020.
Pc Beshenivsky and her colleague Pc Teresa Milburn, who were both unarmed, were shot at point-blank range by one of the three men who had just carried out the raid as he emerged from the door of the business.
In April 2024, Khan became the last of seven men involved in the robbery to be convicted.
He was found guilty at Leeds Crown Court of murdering Pc Beshenivsky, as well as two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon.
In May 2024, Mr Justice Hilliard jailed Khan for life with a minimum term of 40 years.
During his trial, jurors heard Khan was the only one of the group who was familiar with Universal Express and had used the firm in the past to send money to family in Pakistan.
He flew to Pakistan two months after Pc Beshenivsky's death and remained at liberty there until he was arrested by Pakistani authorities in January 2020 and then extradited to the UK in 2023.
Sentencing him last year, the judge told Khan: "You will inevitably spend the remainder of your life in custody, but that is a consequence of sentencing a man of your age for a crime of this particular gravity."
In a statement to the court, Paul Beshenivsky, who had been married to Pc Beshenivsky for four years when she died, said: "The way we lost Sharon was in the most brutal, callous and futile way.
"She never came home due to the actions and organisation of one person - Piran Ditta Khan."