Mastermind of raid that led to PC Sharon Beshenivsky's murder dies in prison
The mastermind of an armed robbery that ended in a police officer being shot dead has died in jail, less than a year after he was sentenced.
Piran Ditta Khan was jailed last May, becoming the final member of the gang responsible for the armed raid which ended in Pc Sharon Beshenivsky's murder to be convicted having spent nearly 15 years on the run.
A Prison Service spokesperson confirmed his death on Friday, saying: "HMP Wakefield prisoner Piran Ditta Khan died on Friday February 21. As with all deaths in custody, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman will investigate."
READ MORE: Police are looking for the family of man, 76, who has died
READ MORE: Boyfriend of woman fatally shot after gunman stormed her home is jailed
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 had 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.
The 76-year-old 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.
Last May, 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, Mr Justice Hilliard 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."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Seven men convicted of sexual exploitation of two teenage girls in Rochdale
Seven Asian men have been convicted of the sexual exploitation of two white teenage schoolgirls in Rochdale. The defendants preyed on the vulnerabilities of the victims to groom them as 'sex slaves' from the age of 13 on various dates in the Greater Manchester town between 2001 and 2006. Both girls had 'deeply troubled home lives' and were given drugs, alcohol, cigarette, places to stay and people to be with, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard. Soon after they were expected to have sex 'whenever and wherever' the defendants and other men wanted in filthy flats, on rancid mattresses, in cars, car parks, alleyways and disused warehouses. Jurors deliberated for three weeks before delivering their unanimous guilty verdicts on Friday. Three of the abusers, Mohammed Zahid, 64, Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, and Kasir Bashir, 50, – all born in Pakistan – were stallholders on the town's indoor market. Father-of-three Zahid – known as Boss Man – gave free underwear from his lingerie stall to both complainants and also money, alcohol and food in return for the expectation of regular sex with him and his friends. In 2016, Zahid was jailed for five years in an earlier grooming gang case after he engaged in sexual activity in 2006 with a 15-year-old girl who he met when she visited his stall to buy tights for school. Bashir did not attend the current trial as jurors were ordered not to speculate why but it can be revealed that he absconded while on bail before the trial got under way. It can also be reported that co-defendants Mohammed Shahzad, 44, Naheem Akram, 48, and Nisar Hussain, 41, were remanded in custody with their bail revoked in January before the jury was sworn in. Police received intelligence that the three Rochdale-born taxi drivers were planning to leave the UK and had already paid a deposit for their transport, the court heard. All three denied the accusation but Judge Jonathan Seely said the court was not prepared to take a risk that they too would abscond. A seventh defendant, Pakistani-born Roheez Khan, 39, also featured in another previous Rochdale grooming trial in 2013 when he was one of five men convicted of sexually exploiting a 'profoundly vulnerable' 15-year-old girl in 2008 and 2009. Khan was jailed for six-and-a-half years for engaging in sexual activity with a child and witness intimidation.
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Boston Globe
Photos show accuser in NYC crypto kidnapping leaving house freely, defense lawyers say
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'The story that he is selling doesn't make sense,' Talkin said in Manhattan criminal court as the defendants were formally arraigned. Advertisement Woeltz's lawyer Wayne Gosnell added that witnesses told him the accuser came and went as he pleased from the upscale town house where he says he was held — going to church, clubs and dinners. The accuser, a 28-year-old Italian national, has not been named by officials. Prosecutors say the defendants have known him personally for years. In court Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Sarah Khan argued that someone who supports the defendants was selectively leaking videos to present a counternarrative of the events. In reality, she said, the accuser was constantly watched, was not permitted to leave the house without being guarded and was subjected to violence, including being pistol whipped and cut with a small chain saw. Advertisement The defendants also took photos of the man various poses and acts to create the impression that he was not being held against his will, Khan said. Police searching the town house found evidence corroborating his story, including a loaded pistol, chain saw and other instruments purportedly used to torture him. They also located photographs, including one where the defendants point a gun to the accuser's head, another where the accuser is tied to wheelchair, and still another showing the accuser being set on fire. When prodded by the judge, Khan explained that the man didn't actually sustain any burn injuries because the defendants would quickly douse the flames, sometimes by urinating on him. What's more, she said, prosecutors believe this is not the first time the defendants have held a person against their will. They are aware of two other potential victims in two other locations, according to Khan. Lawyers for the two men, meanwhile, sought their release on $1 million bail and home confinement with their parents. They rejected suggestions from prosecutors that their clients could flee the country. 'He's so far from a flight risk here. He's ready to fight this case. He's not going anywhere,' Talkin said of Duplessie. The two appeared handcuffed in prison uniforms and didn't speak in court other than to formally enter their pleas. They are charged with kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon and face up to life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors say on May 6, the two men lured the victim to a town house in Manhattan's posh SoHo neighborhood by threatening to kill his family. Advertisement The man said the two investors tormented him with electrical wires, forced him to smoke from a crack pipe and at one point dangled him from a staircase five stories high. The man said he eventually agreed to hand over his computer password, then managed to flee as his captors went to retrieve the device. Khan said Wednesday that last month's kidnapping was at least the third instance in which the two had convinced the man to meet them in person, only to threaten him and take his electronic devices in order to obtain his cryptocurrency. To date, she said, he hasn't received his money or electronic devices back.
Epoch Times
2 days ago
- Epoch Times
Pakistani Extradited Over Alleged Plot to Carry Out ISIS-Inspired Attack on NYC Jewish Center
A Pakistani national living in Canada was extradited to the United States on Tuesday to face charges of attempting to carry out an ISIS-inspired mass shooting at a prominent Jewish center in New York, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said. Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, appeared in court in connection with an indictment filed in the Southern District of New York, the DOJ
