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'Ruthless' Beshenivsky killer jailed for life
Ben Bailey22 Jul 2009
A gangster who fled to his native Somalia after taking part in a robbery in which police officer Sharon Beshenivsky was shot dead was jailed for life today.
Mustaf Jama, 29, was told he would serve at least 35 years for the murder of the mother-of-three.
Jama was part of a gang that gunned down the popular officer and wounded her colleague, Pc Teresa Milburn, during the raid in Bradford in November 2005.
Sentencing him, judge Mr Justice Openshaw said he was one of a "team of ruthless and dangerous men".
Jama was convicted at Newcastle Crown Court following a re-trial after a jury failed to reach a verdict at a hearing in January.
He fled to his native Somalia despite being Britain's most wanted man at the time using a friend's passport.
He was finally brought back to the UK to face justice in 2007 after an undercover operation to smuggle him out of Africa.
Pc Beshenivsky, 38, who also had two stepchildren, was shot and killed on her youngest daughter's fourth birthday as she responded to an alarm call.
Her colleague Pc Milburn was also gunned down in the street as the robbers escaped with little more than £5,000.
Jama was one of three raiders who entered the premises, believing that up to £100,000 could be inside.
The thugs terrified staff with a pistol and machine gun but panicked when they saw police outside.
Ringleader Muzzaker Shah and Jama's younger brother Yusuf were caught soon afterwards and both were jailed for life for murdering the officer, and must serve at least 35 years each.
It was believed Shah was the gunman, though Yusuf Jama claimed he fired the shots.
The prosecution said even if Mustaf Jama did not fire the bullets, he was "as much guilty of murder" as the gunman.
Three other gang members who did not enter the travel agents were jailed for a range of offences.
Piran Ditta Khan, the 60-year-old architect of the robbery, disappeared afterwards and remains at large, believed to be in Pakistan.
Pc Beshenivsky was the first woman police officer to be shot and killed on duty since Pc Yvonne Fletcher was gunned down outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984.
As the jury returned the guilty verdict, Pc Beshenivsky's widower, Paul, comforted Pc Milburn in the public gallery.
Jama remained unemotional as he was convicted of all the charges but made an aggressive hand gesture towards the police gathered in the public gallery.
Reader views (5)
I think the thing that resonated most from this story for me was her little girl waiting at home for her mother to arrive so that she could have her party and open her presents: at the end of her birthday her mother was never coming home, her party was cancelled, her home was full of support police officers and her presents remained unopened on the coffee table. That image will be with that innocent little girl every year on her birthday for the rest of her life - her presents sitting there, unopened and her mother gone.
- Roz, France, 23/07/2009 10:27
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I actually applaud the prison sentence of "at least 35 years" but one cannot help wondering if the victim was one of the shop owners/assistants or merely a passer by whether the sentence was so harsh or if the police would have gone to such lengths to capture him.
At the time of the incident I commented to my wife that the Bradford police had "taped" up the shop/road for an inordinate amount of time. In the same period they were conducting their forensic search of the premises there were three murders in Peckham and roads were open as soon as the blood was washed off the pavement!
- Mark, South-East London, 23/07/2009 10:05
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A dangerous criminal in this country illegally; a Government department that cannot seem to do the job for which they are paid; a mother lost to her children. Does anyone in the Government have the slighest remorse.
- Patricia, LONDON, 23/07/2009 09:02
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35 years = Life? Only if you are a really heavy smoker perhaps.
Then the vermin will claim asylum and live of benefits for the rest of his life.
Come on Labour let some more scum in, the council estate that is the UK is not full enough of the criminal third world yet.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 23/07/2009 08:58
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What was that piece of filth doing in Britain? How did he get through immigration checks?? Hope he rots in prison.
- Barbara, sydney Australia, 23/07/2009 03:41
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