Woman who refused to marry her cousin is seen walking home in CCTV just hours before she was murdered by her uncle – who has been jailed for life with 25-year minimum term

An uncle who murdered his 20-year-old niece in what the prosecution suggested was an ‘honor killing’ has been jailed for life with a minimum of 25 years. It comes as CCTV footage was released showing the victim Somaiya Begum (pictured left and right) walking home from work just hours before the brutal attack. Mohammed Taroos Khan (pictured bottom center), 53, was found guilty of killing Ms Begum in Bradford, West Yorkshire. He dumped her body on wasteland after she refused a forced marriage to her cousin. Ms Begum, a biomedical student at Leeds Beckett University, was found dead just over a mile from her home after a week-long police search in July 2022.

She was discovered with an 11cm (4in)-long ‘bradawl.’ Ms Begum had been living with her grandmother and another of her uncles after her parents were issued with a Forced Marriage Protection Order. This followed her refusal to marry a cousin in Pakistan when she was 16 years old ‘by threat of violence,’ Bradford Crown Court earlier heard. Khan has today been handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 25 years at the same court. As he was sentenced, police released chilling CCTV footage which shows Ms Begum walking home from work hours before she was brutally murdered. Khan was also jailed for five years for [preventing] the course of justice, which will be served concurrently. 

The Honorable Mr Justice Garnham described Ms Begum as ‘an intelligent young woman of spirit and courage.’ And he told Khan: ‘We will never know what happened in Binnie Street on 25th June but I find as fact you murdered your niece between 3:30pm and 5pm that afternoon. I reach that conclusion from all of the evidence from her movements and use of her phone. After you killed Somaiya you put her into your car and transported that body in your car to the shipping container at Carter Gate Works where you stored it overnight. I find as fact that’s what you could be seen doing when you parked your car near to the container. We know your purpose of going to Fitzwilliam Street was to find a spot to dump Somaiya.’

Opening the case to jurors just over a week ago, prosecutor Jason Pitter KC said: ‘(Ms Begum) had met a traumatic death following a violent attack at her home.’ The prosecutor said the body was found 11 days later wrapped in a rug, tied up with string on land used as a dumping ground on Fitzwilliam Street, Bradford. He said her body was so decomposed it was not possible to find a cause of death but there was an 11cm (4in) long, metal spike embedded in her chest which had punctured her lung. Earlier in the trial, jurors were shown CCTV footage of the moment prosecutors say shows Khan dragging Ms Begum’s body from his car and dumping it on waste ground. Khan had pleaded guilty to [preventing] the course of justice by disposing of her body and destroying her phone, which was found in a nearby smoldering bin. Khan denied murder but was found guilty on Tuesday after a trial at Bradford Crown Court. He looked towards the public gallery where cries could be heard as the verdict was announced.

The court previously heard Ms Begum had been offered up for an arranged marriage at 16 by her dad, Mohammed Yaseen Khan, who wanted her to marry her first cousin in Pakistan. And he was left ‘humiliated and incandescent with rage’ when she refused the proposal and later told the police of his plans, her aunt Ishrath Khan said in evidence. Both Ms Begum’s father and his brother Mohammed Khan were prohibited from going to the address where she was living as they held ‘similar’ hard-line attitudes, the court heard. Mr Pitter, prosecuting, said Khan visited the home three times on June 25 last year in his Mitsubishi Space Wagon vehicle and had contacted Ms Begum by phone. Khan had cut a key for property – worth roughly £110,000 ($132,000) – before he turned up at the address at about 3:50pm, the jury was told.

Mr Pitter said: ‘At around 3:30pm, Somaiya Begum sent final messages to her close companion and school friend. Not long after that, her telephone was to cease meaningful use. That coincided with the arrival of her uncle, the defendant, Mohammed Taroos Khan at her home address in the minutes afterwards. Whilst the prosecution cannot say precisely when Somaiya was killed, you can conclude that something significant had happened around or shortly after that point because there was no apparent further communication between Somaiya and anyone else after that time.’ Mr Pitter said Khan had then gone to Carter Gate Works industrial yard where he had living quarters, before returning to Binnie Street at 5:29 pm. And during the intervening period, the prosecutor told the court Khan had made searches online for ‘large, one tonne capacity, rubble bags including at the B&Q store.’

He said: ‘The CCTV footage showed him opening a door to a container. He can be seen to be wearing gloves at the time. He then reversed his car up to the container entrance, however, the door was positioned in such a way as to obscure what he was doing from the CCTV camera.’ Mr Pitter said Khan was discovered by Ms Begum’s uncle, Dawood, at the property at around 6:30pm after he walked through the home’s ‘normally locked front door.’ And told jurors that it was during this period when Khan was making ‘his plans to finally dispose of her body.’ Ms Begum’s remains were found on the industrial site several days later by police on July 6, with a postmortem examination showing signs of ‘trauma and assault.’ Khan’s defense counsel, Mr Zafar Ali, described how in the Pathan community, which Somaiya belonged to, ‘blood feuds’ could last generations. And he suggested her ‘humiliated’ father Yaseen had a ‘motive’ to kill her after she’d refused to participate in the marriage he’d arranged for her with her cousin years earlier.

He also told the court that Yaseen had taken a ‘one-way’ ticket to Pakistan not long before the trial commenced without giving his family a reason. Mr Ali 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.’ But the jury decided on the strength of the evidence, that Mohammed Khan was guilty of Somaiya’s murder – following his initial arrest on July 6 last year. Mr Pitter suggested that her uncle may have murdered her in an ‘honor killing.’ He said: ‘It may be that as part of it he advances issues in relation to the family’s culture and religion which may have been the misguided justification to kill her. We suppose in the context of the inappropriately named “honor killing.” Whatever his motive, because it was him, even if others, as he may seek to say, were involved, it was not honorable.’

While the prosecution argued Ms Begum had been murdered in a so-called ‘honor killing,’ the judge today refused to ‘speculate’ about Khan’s motive and sentence on the basis of that was any form of honor killing. Justice Garnham said: ‘It is said you did not share the views of your brother Yaseen about the role of women or obligations for her to marry her cousin in Pakistan. All that matters is that the jury have found you guilty of the heinous crime of murder.’ No victim personal statement from Ms Begum’s family was read out during the sentencing. But Mr Pitter said they echoed the sentiments offered by her uncle Dawood Khan, who said in evidence: ‘She was a blessing to have in the house and I could not fault her. She was the light of my life.’

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