London:
A 75-year-old man extradited from Pakistan was sentenced to life in prison on Friday for the murder of a British police officer almost twenty years ago.
Piran Ditta Khan fled the country after Sharon Beshenivsky was shot at close range as she and a colleague arrived at the scene of a robbery at a travel agency in Bradford, northern England.
Although he did not pull the trigger, prosecutors said at his trial that he was just as guilty of murder if he planned the raid and knew loaded weapons would be used.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard at Leeds Crown Court handed Piran Khan a life sentence on Friday, with a minimum term of 40 years, telling him: “You will inevitably spend the rest of your life in custody.”
Beshenivsky, 38, had been an officer with West Yorkshire Police for just nine months before her death, which happened on her daughter Lydia's fourth birthday.
“Every anniversary is a reminder of what happened that day,” Lydia said in an impact statement read out in court.
“It was recently Mother's Day, and while my friends celebrate it with their mothers, unfortunately I never get to do that.”
She was “too young and innocent” to understand why her mother did not return from work to celebrate her birthday, the statement said.
Judge Hilliard praised Beshenivsky's courage in responding to the call “when she and her colleague could not have known what they would face when they got there.”
“Sharon Beshenivsky's courage and devotion to duty that day cost her her life,” he added.
The rare fatal shooting of an on-duty police officer caused widespread shock and revived calls for British police to routinely carry guns.
A 'crucial' role
Piran Khan, a former takeaway restaurant boss, was believed by prosecutors to be the leader of the gang involved in the November 18, 2005, murder.
He remained in a lookout car during the robbery, played a “critical” role in planning the robbery and knew loaded firearms would be used.
As such, he was as guilty of Beshenivsky's murder “as surely as if he had pulled the trigger on that gun himself,” prosecutors said at his trial.
He claimed he was trying to get back the money the travel agency owner owed him, but lawyers said there was no evidence of that.
The gang escaped with just over $5,000.
Piran Khan was arrested in Islamabad in January 2020 after years on the run and extradited in April 2023.
He was found guilty of murder and firearms offences. He had confessed to the theft.
Six other gang members were previously jailed over the shooting, in which Beshenivsky's colleague Teresa Milburn was also shot in the chest.
Milburn, who was 37 at the time, had joined the force two years earlier.
Three of the men, including one who fled to Somalia but was later extradited, were given life sentences and told they would spend at least 35 years behind bars.
Patrick Twiggs, Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, said members of the force “welcome the life sentence imposed on Piran Khan.
“West Yorkshire Police will continue to honor Sharon's memory, we still mourn her loss, we still miss her, she will always be in our thoughts,” he added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)