Man guilty of PC Sharon Beshenivsky murder dies in prison
The 76-year-old ringleader of an armed robbery in which a police officer was shot dead almost 20 years ago has died in jail, less than a year after he was sentenced.Piran Ditta Khan spent nearly two decades evading justice for his part in the killing of PC Sharon Beshenivsky in Bradford on 18 November 2005.Khan was jailed for life in May for PC Beshenivsky's murder, becoming the final member of the gang responsible for the armed raid to be convicted.A Prison Service spokesperson confirmed his death on Friday, saying: "HMP Wakefield prisoner Piran Ditta Khan died on Friday 21 February. As with all deaths in custody, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman will investigate."
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.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.Khan had fled to Pakistan after the killing at the age of 57, and evaded justice until he was caught in 2020.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.Mr Justice Hilliard jailed Khan for life with a minimum term of 40 years.
'Brutal' crime
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.He was then extradited to the UK in 2023.Sentencing Khan last year, Mr Justice Hilliard detailed how Khan had a number of health ailments, including heart disease and back trouble, and said his "physical condition will make custody hard to serve".He 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."Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.
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