Armed raider admits murdering WPC
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One of the five men accused of murdering Sharon Beshenivsky, the police officer shot dead last year in a raid on travel agency in Bradford, has pleaded guilty.
A judge overseeing the trial, which is expected to open at Newcastle Crown Court today, has lifted an order which had prevented a guilty plea previously entered by Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah, 25, of no fixed address, being reported.
PC Beshenivsky, 38, was shot in the chest when she and PC Teresa Milburn, both probationers, responded to reports of an armed robbery last November. PC Milburn, 37, was shot in the shoulder.
Shah, a baker's son from Burnley, Lancashire, admitted robbery and a firearms charge relating to the incident, at a hearing at Leeds Crown Court in June this year. His guilty plea to the murder charge was entered at a hearing at Newcastle Crown Court on 4 October, but an order was made preventing publication of the admission. Following representations by media organisations, Mr Justice Smith lifted the order yesterday. Shah also admitted two firearms offences during legal submissions yesterday.
Shah is the only one of the five defendants to be also charged with the attempted murder of PC Milburn, a charge that he denies.
He was born in the UK and grew up near Burnley, before moving to London in 1991. His parents were born in Pakistan and the family is thought to have lived in north-west London until a few years ago.
PC Beshenivsky was married with three children and two step-children. She joined West Yorkshire Police just nine months before her death, after working as a childminder and a community support officer.
Yusuf Abdillh Jamma, 20, from Small Heath, Birmingham; Raza Ul-Haq Aslam, 25, of Kentish Town, north London; Faisal Razzaq, 25, and his 26-year-old brother Hassan, both of Forest Gate, east London, all deny murder.