The Murder of Shafilea Ahmed: The UK's Shocking Honour Killing

Hello everybody welcome back to another episode of The Casual criminalist as always I'm your host Simon welcome I'm one of my writer this case George thank you so much George has written me a script it's all about the murder of shilia Ahmed this is a British case I vaguely remember this is wasn't this something to do with an honor killing like dinner didn't wasn't it like the parents killed their daughter over something insane because of some like religious thing this was a long time ago but it was in the UK I vaguely remember this therefore one of the show if you're new here I've never read this before obviously we're read it together and explore it dear audience let's jump [Music] in nestled in the heart of the English Countryside cedrick CIA epitomizes the quintessential rural charm of England's this picturesque village with its verdant Meadows and gently Rolling Hills appears as though it could have been plucked directly from the canvas of a turn or a conable masterpiece there are Old Stone Cottages with their quaint Gardens and Ivy Cloud walls the likes of which are emblematic of traditional English they line The Village's winding streets and through the center of it all the river Ken meanders lazily through the gentle ticking of its flow being a constant audible reminder that this is the absolute Zenith of idilic English Countryside I grew up in a small little village in the English Countryside and You' get tourists there and you'd be like what the hell are you doing in this Village it's so boring there's nothing to do there's nothing to eat there's just it's just a boring Town village Village definitely not a town with nothing going on and people would come there and be like oh it's so English they'd be American usually and they'd just be like oh it's so English we just love how English it is we'll go to the tea shop and have afternoon tea it's like I just didn't understand it I was like why would you come here there's much more interesting places to go on the 4th of February 2004 workers from the United Utilities Company were engaged in routine maintenance on the banks of this very River their day at first unfolded like any other they worked hard but as light-hearted band are ensued and they soaked in the beauty of their idyllic surroundings they couldn't help but feel that all in all they had found themselves with the most enviable vocation such sentiments weren't to last too long however because as they toiled even further down the banks of the river they happened upon a site most Grizzly and foul crudely dumped human remains not that they realized what they had discovered at first mind you the remains were in a very poor State of Decay after having long been abandoned to the elements and with livestock sporadically washing up down the bank workers initially didn't even and detain the notion that what laid Downstream from them could in fact be human they just instinctively assumed it was an animal and went to dispose of it in their normal manner I don't know if that's like a job I'd find enviable that sound other than like it's like one of those things it's like yeah it' be nice to work outside wasn't it that I think about in the spring and in the Autumn but not in the summer because it's too fuing hot and not in the winter because it's too cold and I think it's one of those things after about three days I'll be like I wish I was inside it's so there's so much nature out here and you wouldn't be in nature you be like some by the bank of some River in a town fishing dead sheep out of a river it was when they got up close that their minds fully locked onto the reality of the situation animals don't wear jewelry these were human remains in an instant the jovial mood among the workers was relinquished replaced instead by revulsion and all consuming sadness one of the men immediately fell to his knees and brought up that morning's full English the site simply being too much for him to take I don't know how i' react in a situation like that I I don't think I'd be sick because I've never been sick from seeing anything but you never know until you're in that position do you the rest however simply stood there standing unable to fully process the site before them yeah I think I'll just be one of those people be like whoa eventually one of the workers stepped forward and moved things along pointing out that there was nothing to be done now but back away and avoid contaminating the scene and calling the police upon receiving that call Cumbria constabulary's homicide investigation team immediately set off for the scene in force there's being a department that rarely had much to do given the Tranquil and peaceful policing area they were committed to do they like homicide investigation team I guess they have to but wouldn't you just have it like CU you always want people to be busy right you don't want them like sitting around waiting for a homicide why not just have it covering a larger region then I guess they do other stuff when they're not investigating homicides when on the scene they immediately set about their meticulous work interviewing the shaken workers carefully photographing the sign meticulously sweeping the area for any additional evidence The Remains were then transported back to the station and handed over to the Cumbria coroner service for further examination at this point there were only two things that they wanted to know who it was and if Foul Play was involved in their death but as simple as these questions were the answers would prove most elusive chiefly due to the advanced state of the remains decomposition nothing remained on the surface level that could help them even ascertain an ethnicity or a gender never mind an identification oh wow those are those are quite decomposed undeterred they moved on to examine the bones which tragically due to the length of time the unknown person had spent exposed to the elements was the bulk of what remained this did at least allow them to ascertain their gender though they were female they then moved on to the teeth with a sense of cautiously optimistic trepidation dental records are often the best way of identifying remains in this condition but often they're also a last resort if they didn't work they'd be entirely at the mercy of DNA which hopefully they could score a lucky hit from mercifully it did work and her records came up online as an exact match for a teenage girl had been reported missing 139 days earlier Shaila if Ahmed aged only 17 with shaila's identification Fate's die had been cast and the first Domino had been toppled in a chain of events that would lead to the unraveling and exposure of one of the grizzli murder plots ever to be executed on British soil one in which a bright eyes and intelligent young woman who could have the entire world at her feet had everything she ever was and Ever Could Be stolen from her by a betrayal from those closest to her her own parents okay so it is the it is the one that I remembered from many many years ago chapter one a broken home born on the 14th of July 1986 in Bradford West Yorkshire England Shaila is the eldest child of Pakistani immigrant parents ifar and fan aret the family moved to Warrington in cheser there shilia in ially attended guest great sanki high school before later enrolling at Priestly College to pursue our levels the qualification we Brits work towards between the ages of 16 and 18 warrington's a big city I'd never heard of Warrington and I was doing this long cycling trip where you cycle from the southernmost point of the UK to the northern uh of England to the northermost point of Scotland and me and my mate we cycled through this city called warington I'm like we've never heard of Warrington and it's huge and we're like have we never heard of this place at both of these institutions she proved herself to be a charismatic and likable girl and thus and herself a loyal cohort of Faithful Friends who remember her fondly to this day in particular they remember her as an outwardly shy girl who was often hesitant around strangers but one who would open up once she got the measure of you revealing her true highly animated self a person who was always smiling always giggling always happy and generally providing a beacon of positivity to those around her her memory is held equally fondly by her neighbors who remember how she navigated the neighborhood with a sense of quiet Grace a polite girl who would always always dropped what she was doing to say hello but was markedly reserved around her Elders not that they weren't aware of the charismatic young woman that Shaila was slowly bossing into because over fences and through walls they would often hear her being the life and soul of the party or in The Exclusive Company of her friends George has left a note for me here we're also very lucky and grateful to have been able to consult one of those friends during the production of today's show Rachel who has asked us not to share her full name and preserve her privacy without her sharing her experience I simply wouldn't have been able to provide nearly as in- depth the characterization of Shaila as I have so let's all give a big thanks to Rachel she is also a big fan of the show so I know she'll be chuffed a bits to get shouted out wow you like sitting here at my desk with no one around me it's easy to forget that lots of people listen to this show because it just kind of like feels like me having a chat with you dear camera and I mean like listener and uh person at home but you forget that there's like there's a lot of folks just tuning in and they know people and all of that stuff so there we go thank you for the help with this episode Rachel Beyond this Shaila is also remembered as a fiercely intelligent young woman her teachers noted her as a student who consistently demonstrated both aptitude and diligence one who always had a hand up in class always completed her homework on time and always went Above and Beyond in all aspects of her study Isom was no surprise then that she absolutely swept the table when she completed her gcses the qualification that we Brits work towards between the ages of 14 and 16 coming out with a blistering Myriad of A's and a stars to her name which is quite impressive if you're just getting A's and a Stars you're doing rather well well for example you're all fed boy here he did definitely just get a and a Stars not ones arrest on their Laurels however shailo is dreaming big and aiming for the stars with the ultimate goal of heading up the m62 after a levels to study lore at the University of Leeds with a view to becoming a solicitor a trade that an intelligent and charismatic woman such as herself would have surely excelled in unfortunately for sh however while she may have had all of her friends teachers and neighbors rooting for her success she completely lacked support from arguably the two most important figures in her life her parents both of whom were very traditional for once of a better term they clinging to their traditional Family Values envisioned a very different life trajectory for their daughter what the she wants to become a lawyer what sort of parents are like no no no no no you must be a housewife or something like she's becoming a lawyer isn't that what parents want like other than doctor surely that's the one where parents are like yes especially like immigrant parents that's a thing with immigrant parents right they want like their children to have like super professional careers one which included an arranged marriage the cessation of all her career aspirations the termination of her friendships with non-muslim girls and all boys and an existence spent in dutiful subservience to her future husband for whom she would pump out kids and tend to the home guys what what no you C it feels like trying to be culturally sensitive here or whatever and probably don't have to because if I remember correctly these people are uh the bad guys of today's episode but if you are coming to another country and sending your daughter to a school where all the people have the culture of the country that you've come to you've got to expect that they're going to take that culture and make that a part it a part of themselves and in the UK that includes like career aspirations for women I know shocking idea this is that I I you always got to be so careful and like tread carefully on these sorts of things but it seems it seems very odd that you wouldn't Embrace that if you've chosen to come somewhere and then you don't know if they chose it because there's all sort I'm just going to leave this here before I dig a hole that is really deep but I hope people can see my point naturally shilia wasn't having any of this she was adamant that she would live her life on her terms by her own standards and her own pace good as a result as she grew up what began as small points of bickering and chastising here and there on the matter exploded into an extreme and unrelenting into familiar conflict in a perverse Twist of irony ifar didn't even practice what he preached that's the father by the way as for the vast majority of his life he enjoyed the exact kind of liberal and westernized lifestyle that he now sought to deny his eldest child wait this makes it even worse like if you were all traditional and being like Oh we stick with our cultures traditional value vales and whatnot but it's like you don't even do that so who the are you to be like you have to live differently you it's like that whole do as I say not as I do it's like f that if you want your kids to do something you have to lead by example he first immigrated to the UK at the age of 10 with fully supportive parents lived a life characterized by boozing late night partying in CD nightclubs Yorkshire over frequent casual flings and general hedonistic excess he did eventually settle down however shacking up and marrying a Danish woman named Vivy loone and in 1982 with whom he then relocated to Copenhagen and had a son wait this it's it what there he settled into a typical Cosmopolitan type of Lifestyle remaining culturally Sunni Muslim but abandoning all pretense of Orthodoxy taking people as they came never being judgmental and otherwise being perfectly laid-back and liberal what happened to his brain then unconfirmed stories from this time even assert that he could often be found in the hippie commune of Freetown Christiania where he eagerly boken the demonetized Devil's lettuce or we can say weed that's not demonetized with his eclectic mix of friends from all four corners of the world and there's another note here fun fact I was in Christiania myself a month or so back and it's certainly nothing like how the hype makes it out to be the criminality is nowhere near as bad as people say and if you apply the standard don't be an idiot rules it's more than chill why do I say this I hear you ask well because now that I've mentioned it in the scripts the whole trip is now a tax deductible business expense uh I don't know about that isn't it like I don't even know how this works my accountant handles my financial life I'm an incompetent but also there Christiania place isn't that that kind of place in Denmark that's kind of a law onto itself like the kind of laws don't apply there and people there's like weed and all of this or they used to be in the past or I'd like some more information George this sounds super interesting I feel like I made a video about it though already I just don't remember much about it so what gives you're all no doubt wondering how did if car go from being that liberal fell to the ultra Orthodox religious zealot so eager to crush his daughter's own aspirations underfoot well his exact motivations and emotional impetuses remain unclear but we do know the chain of events that led to it and it all began with a trip to Pakistan in 1985 the trip had initially been motivated by his mother being taken ill in response to which she dropped everything and headed back with all due haste but far from the warm and welcoming family reunion like You' been expecting when he finally made it back home to his village of utam on pack 's Northeastern Frontier he was met with a Steely wall of furrowed brows judgmental scorns and fingers of wagging his family were not happy with him they knew exactly how he'd been living his life and they were adamant that such nonsense was going to end immediately further still they were adamant that he was going to be taking a new bride home with him a good traditional girl one who would keep him on the straight and narrow make sure he didn't fall back into any of that liberal nonsense ever again and we've already met her it was fanza who also happened to be ifa's first cousin braah can you can you imagine like you're married you got a kid you live in Copenhagen with a Danish woman you're like just living your best life you've lived in you moved to the UK when you were were 10 you are fully absorbed into that culture and then you go back home and they're like hey guess what you've got to divorce your wife leave your child leave all your hedonistic ways behind and marry your cousin your first cousin like what the f in a Twist that's painfully parallel to his own later conflicts with shilia ifar tried to put his foot down and say no he liked his current life thank you very much and he was going to be damned if anyone was going to mess it up with him but his family were Relentless in their insisting and the longer he held out the greater the threats made upon Him became wait what threats can they have this is an adult man living on the other side of the world what they what are they going to do cut him off he's an adult it escalated from you'll make your mother sad to you're a disgrace to this family sort yourself out all the way to if you leave here without having married for as you have no family to come back to you'll be dead to us honestly in that situation it's like well that's on you guys like and I love my family but if this was the situation I was in I'd be like well [ __ ] you if you don't like me for me then you can C off and we'll not talk for a while and then maybe you'll come around and be like okay I actually like to talk to my son that's absurd this is just not right under that volley of Relentless nagging ifar soon found himself at a point where he simply could take it no further so he acquiesced and married fana now at this point what do you think he did did he a call up the woman who had lovingly give him both a son and three years of her life honestly explain the situation to her apologize for not having the spine to resist and promise to support her under the table in moving on and getting her life back together or did he be tell her absolutely nothing and just turn back up at the family home with his new wife and boot Vivy and his son out onto the street that's fing insane I'm assuming it's be because otherwise this wouldn't be a question but again I'll say that's insane as you've likely guessed from the way that I floated the question we did George he chose B and it gets worse too because before his trip back to Pakistan ifar had moved Vivi and his son over to Bradford in the UK so there that poor woman was having just upended her entire life and moved oh yeah they're in another country they're in Denmark and moved to another country so that her and her loving husband could start a new chapter together only for him to turn up with a new wife V with no words for her except a barked order to back up her things and get out out into the streets of a country she barely knew without so much as cash to cover the cost of the flights back home if a car never communicated with his son ever again after that day and both him and vzan agreed to just pretend neither he nor Vivy had ever existed oh my God you colossal piece of [ __ ] that is just like gone from being like oh wow your family and knobs forcing you to do this to you actually doing it and abandoning your son you douchebag in my opinion and the opinion of everyone listen listening to this no doubt is what I would speculate then to provide for his new wife ifar took up the Manel of taxi driver and fan embraced the role of traditional Homemaker then less than a year after Vivy had been kicked out of the door Shaila was born She Was Then followed by four more children none of whom I'll be naming today as they're still knocking about and I want to respect their privacy yes good at this early stage ifar was still his old self a broken down and defeated version of it admittedly but still very much himself clearly not a man who found much joy from his new situ sitation one that in his opinion had been completely foed upon him and he was powerless to have prevented or avoided fana saw this lingering spark of Independence quite clearly and did everything in her power to stamp it out with regular nagging and frequent chastising and if none of that worked a threat to give his parents a little call and tell them about his ongoing resistance usually did the trick somewhere along the way this all changed and if car began leaning into the ultra Orthodox lifestyle that both his family and his new wife demanded of him information about this transition is few and far between with none of the people who would be in a position to offer meaningful Insight I is family ever having come forward to speak about it publicly so we have no idea whether or not this change in his principles was a reasoned one he truly believed and bought into or whether he was just progressively indoctrinated into it by his situation but whatever the reason was that he did it the outcome Remains the Same he was now an ultr traditional and conservative Zealot and he would be imposing those values on his children that is how the situation I described at the start of this chapter came to be and as a result young shaila's home life became simply intolerable the older she got the more her natural desire for autonomy and Independence came to the surface and the more that happened the more her parents tried to stamp it out and the more they tried to stamp it out the harder she fought back thus starting a vicious cycle that would lead to pors ofilia being subjected to the most horrendous of abuse in the Years leading up to her death the hypocrisy of this is fing mind blowing ah today's episode of the show is brought to you by my absolute favorite sponsor and that is of course vessie who make shoes they also make jackets and gloves and all sorts of things but look spring is here so get yourself sorted out uh it's like the season where unexpected rains happen you know you'll be out and about beautiful sunny day and then boom raining there are puddles everywhere well the good news is that vess's despite not looking waterproof at all are 100% waterproof thanks to material called diatex which means water comes off them like it does off a duck's back and you might be thinking oh Simon it's like spring it's summer my feet are going to be sweaty in a pair of waterproof shoes oh no they won't be because also through magic or something they're also super breathable so I wear my vessies all summer or winter Autumn spring whenever I got the vessies on and my feet are perfect this is the new stormburst lowp they've had the ey top for a while I very much enjoyed that now there's the low top perfect for the new season these are the week can sneaker perfect for rainy days or just not rainy days or these are the most diverse ones you can use these in almost any situation so if you're ready to get some vessis and you absolutely should be go to v.com TCC and you'll get an automatic 15% off your first purchase a checkout your feet will thank you thank you to V if you're sponsoring link below to get that discount and now back to today's video escalating abuse so now that we know how shila's home situation came to be so disgustingly oppressive let's now look at the abuse that she had to suffer and know before we begin o to The Limited number of sources available for this case there are quite a few gaps in the story so we're going to be jumping around a bit we ultimately don't know when the abuse against Shaila began so we're forced to begin when Shaila first came onto the police's radar which was around the 10th of March 1998 when she was just 11 on this day in ways unknown shilia and one of her subjects have been subject to abuse so extreme that it made them choose to abcon from the family home altogether with the pair running away and disappearing onto the streets of Warrington unable to find them if shakar and fanza eventually reported their disappearances to the police a few hours later and as fate would have it both chaila and her sibling returned home of their own accord later that day this incident while brief was the first opportunity that the authorities had to Twig that all was not well in the armed home and intervene for the good of chilia and her siblings but unfortunately the arms of the state completely failed in their duty of care because the police happened to think that two children one of whom was merely 11 years old running away from home was completely normal and they failed to investigate any further I mean I get where you're coming from George that it is completely normal but I'm sure kids from like normal homes where they just have a like Teenage she's 11 though isn't she but like let's just say teenagers like the police might be like well look kids of this age they'll run away for the afternoon and then when they realize they don't want to sleep outside or they none of their friends want to parents want to take them in but evening they come home so I get why the police are maybe a little soft at this point and look I'm the first person to always be like the police but in this case I'm not completely against their response yet yet not even passing it along to Social Services for so much as a low priority as in when house visit yeah but also I'm sure I'm sure Social Services is ridiculously overworked sadly this will become a recurring Thief in this chapter from there The Story Goes cold for a time and I wasn't able to find references to any other incidents involving chilia for the next few years things may have gotten better for a time they may have gotten worse or they may have fluctuated between the two I just don't know but what is for certain is that come late 2002 things were getting worse for certain as on the 3rd of October 2002 teachers had noted that Shaila had disappeared from school having not attended class for a week or so when do you report that I my sister and her husband a teachers and school's very different now they have to do like all of these there I can't remember the name of it there's something they have where it's like if any of these things happen then you have to talk to the parents like I don't know if it's like around drugs or whatever or stuff like this and it's like if they don't show up to school I imagine that's one of those things and at some point they have to there's like another level of escalation or whatever where they have to report it to Social Services or something like that I feel like someone not going to school for a week has got to be like a social services thing because school is mandatory any student disappearing for this length of time would raise eyebrows but for a student such as shilia the immediate concern was heightened for she was an enthusiastic student one of the rare ones who actually enjoyed attending her classes so there was little to no chance that she would just be lethargically bunking off and skirting her classes thus heightening the chance that something more malevolent had befallen her with this concern in mind a teacher was dispatched to her home at the close of the school day to try and find out what was happening that's good for you I I didn't realize that's how things worked but I like the fact that a teacher would go and do this much to that teacher's relief Shaila was alive would you like obviously they don't have foresight of what is happening in today's episode would they really expect her to be dead I would not expect that at all I'd be like was she sick or something or a whole family sick are they on holiday and they just didn't want to tell us so they could have an extra holiday like out of the school holidays or something I wouldn't be thinking she's dead but to their concern she wasn't exactly well initially ifar blocked the door as he conversed with them insisting that chailo was inside and that he wasn't going to be letting them in to see her but as they went on and explained that they were Duty bound to personally confirm her well-being and so wouldn't be going anywhere until they'd seen her he eventually threw up An Almighty half stopped resisting and invited the teacher inside so he could get it over with that's not how the law works it's like I'm not leaving until you show me it's like well okay you're going to be sitting out here for a while then mate like not to to like obviously it's good that they went inside but you can't just go into people's houses it's like you might have a duty of care or whatever but it's like it's not how it works then following a barked order from her father shilia descended down the staircase in a condition that left her teacher in a stunned silence shilia appeared in good health physically but mentally she was clearly broken now but a husk of a girl who dragged her feet along the floor kept her head slumped and didn't speak until spoken to all while her expression remains well empty the charismatic and bubbly girl that the teacher knew was simply nowhere to be seen Ed the teacher demanded answers but if darar simply refused to provide anything substantial what happened to her she's nothing like herself the teacher proclaimed she's throwing a tantrum because I won't let her go to school he responded but why would you do that the teacher shot back because she's playing up ifar followed up with such a conversation repeated itself for several minutes until the teacher attempted to speak with Shaila directly only to be blocked both physically and verbally by ifar who refused to let the two speak eventually sensing that it was going nowhere and at least having managed to secure a promise that Shaila would be allowed to go to school the teacher gave it up as a bad job and left the house I think the next move right is like you've done all you can as the teacher in that situation there's not more you can do and I think this teacher honestly has gone above and beyond mad respect to you and I'd be like okay great see you in school on Monday or whatever and if they didn't show up Social Services or the police right because school's mandatory something weird is going on Social Services need to drop in like now it's gone from oh they ran away from an afternoon possibly possible to be like something needs to be done now we don't know the specifics of what happened that evening after the teacher left but we do know that the encounter made a demon out of ifar because when chilia did return to school the following day as promised she carried the wounds of a physical barrage most brutal with her injuries including a cut lip and a bruised neck or in that situation that also means police and social services or whatever she showed up to school but that's clear physical abuse and it seems pretty reasonable that they know where that came from Shia's German teacher clocked this immediately when she entered her classroom and was sufficiently horrified by what she saw that she left the class to its own devices and took chilia outside to press her on what the hell happened to her poor shilia wasn't forthcoming with an answer however and when press fell over her own words giving shaky and jumbled responses that changed every time she was asked to provide further Clarity fortunately the teacher was no fool and knew Clara's day that she was looking at a serious case of child abuse so after doing what she could to console Shaila she immediately reported the incident to Social Services the British State body responsible for child welfare excellent right move to make I like this this school and these teachers are on top of this I'm very impressed whatever school this is respect shaila's friends also twig that she was undergoing extreme torment after all they were the ones who knew her better than anyone else the ones who knew her true charismatic and jovial self so to them her radically deated demeanor and physical injuries were also noted immediately and they were a point of grave concern throughout the group unsure what to do in response as they were just teenagers after all they did the only things that they could think of doing tried to cheer up with jokes and light-hearted Baner and attempt to get her to open up about her ordeal as and when they felt it was appropriate this continued for several days in what was a continual process of one step forward and two step back as removed from her family shaila's mood would slowly improve throughout the school day and she would start to open up onlyon to then have to return home to her family when the bell rang at 3:30 which would then bring her back to school in an even worse State than the previous day come the 9th of October however they finally got through to her and shilia managed to put her fear of her father aside just long enough for her to confide everything in her closest friends with tears in her eyes and hands shaking from the stress of finally admitting the full and Grim reality of her situation she spoke of her father as a man consumed with rage a rage that was fueled by his belief that she was being too westernized but amidst the various substantiations of this claim we discussed earlier Shaila now said said that a new Western Behavior if dear's words not mine had risen to the four of his mind and it was sending him more livid than anything had previously and that was the idea that she was engaging in casual sexual relations with men for some God only known reason this more than anything really made him see red and every time the idea came to his mind verbal humiliation and physical beating soon followed it sounds like this guy got [ __ ] up by his parents and now he's fuing up his kid even worse you you need to get over your [ __ ] you need to get over your [ __ ] like I understand you're in a shitty situation too but you need to get over your [ __ ] for your kids for youring kids you fcking clown the worst part of this new claim of ifar it was complete nonsense shilia was doing no such thing so now poor Shaila was having to face the most horrendous of abuse all for a behavior that she was well within her rights to do anyway but that was also entirely a product of her father's own imagination after I bravely revealed the harrowing truth about her abuse to her friends there was a noticeable shift in her demeanor at school it was as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders orbe it temporarily her friends now fully aware of her plight rallied around her providing a much needed sanctuary of support and understanding your friends also this is some what is going this school is awesome great teachers great pastoral care great friends I'm really liking this and if there's someone if anyone's listening to this in this situation or anything close to it or you know know someone just tell youring friends just tell your friends I know it's it's like going to seem scary and all of this stuff but you need support and you need someone to help you know what to do and I don't imagine many young people listen to this show but this is a great example of of how this should be handled at this stage I know this story doesn't end well but hopefully there's at least something we can learn from this because this is very good or teachers at school I imagine more teachers are listening to this than kids like if you see something like that do something like do something like these teachers did Legends shilia who had for so long carried the burden of her torment and isolation found a semblance of solace in this new found solidarity the once subdued and withdrawn girl began to show glimpses of her true chipper self once again she also started to participate more actively in class discussions her hand hesitantly rising to offer insights that reminded her teachers of the bright and engaged student she once was yet despite this newfound rest bite the reality of situation lingered each St as the school bell rang shaila's smile would fade replaced by a look of apprehension as she made her way home fully in the knowledge of what waited for her none of her friends having any power to help any further unfortunately back at home the abuse continued to escalate further still as if the car was now planning to ship Shaila off to Pakistan where she'd be forced to marry a man of his choosing this came to light on the 11th of October when Shaila in a rare moment of openness with an authority figure broke down during a meeting with a social worker told all and pleaded for help yet in the face of this desperate plea for intervention the response from the social worker was dishearteningly inadequate instead of immediate action What followed was a mere notation in jia's file a cold bureaucratic response to a cry for help when what she wanted was decisive and immediate action what she deserves is decisive and immediate action she's clearly being abused she has the physical evidence to prove it and she's saying she's being abused you need to do something about this at this point shilia Trail runs cold run again it is known that she continued to suffer the most horrendous abuse at home and continued to find sporadic rest bite at school but as for anything specific I've got nothing it isn't until the 20th of November that we finally get more information about how she was getting on and sadly it was not good she was confiding in her friends as she often did and let slip that her parents were becoming awfully suffocating in their abuse granting her no time nor quarter on she crossed into the threshold of the ammed family home things had gotten so bad by this point that trilia had once again committed herself to running away from home which she eventually did 5 days later on the 25th of November after a particularly overwhelming volley of abuse unfortunately the rest fite was brief although she had been planning to run away for several days by this point her plan was rudimentary of course it was she's a kid she doesn't know how to run away can't possibly imagine the complications of running away at 17 or however old she is but I mean can you hardly blame her when in a situation like that one can hardly be expected to keep a calm and leveled head or all she knew was that she had to get out now and so she did it the best way that she could at the time hastily packing a bag and heading for a friend's house that secured her safety for a single night but her friend's parents while not ones to immediately turn a desperate girl away ultimately wanted no part in relieving shaila's ordeal so they informed her the next day that she'd not be allowed to stay another night and would have to make alternative Arrangements they also strongly chasti their own daughter for telling shilia that she could stay without their prior approval what lovely people I like to think that if I was in this position and someone was like I I you know they're 17 so they know what's going on and gosh you don't know though because kids can be manipulative teenagers can be manipulative and obviously that's not at all what is happening here just to be 100% clear but in this situation you can be like yeah but really are your parents because or maybe you just like had a fight and then I don't want to be the parents who's essentially like letting you stay in my house when your parents desperately want you back and there's no abuse so I don't know I'd need to like check this somehow but then if I got word from like a teacher or something or the kid said well ask Mrs German teacher or whatever her name was just give her a ring give the school a ring and ask about this and she'll tell you and then as soon as I get word from an adult like this I'll be like you can stay as long as you want that I I'd like to think I I I would do that in that situation I'm confident I would do that it's the right thing to do their callousness led chilia to seek shelter in sanki Valley Park the next night a place that despite the bitter November cold she was more than happy to lay her head in because at least it wasn't home she wouldn't see the morning there however because as she lay asleep on a park bench insulated only by two jackets and using her bag as a pillow she was prodded awake by the police who had been looking for her as if the car had reported her missing certain that she didn't want to go home however she fell on her knees and begged the two officers for their raid the police station a homeless shelter even just being left in the park she claimed she would go any where so long as it wasn't home but the officers were having none of it and so ultimately they coaxed chilia into the back of a panda car and returns her back to The Wretched clutches of ifar she's begging she would rather be in prison doesn't that say something there's a note here from George they also had another meeting with their parents at school about this incident and guess what came of it absolutely nothing Christ but despite this shaila's hope had not yet been snuffed out and Ember of Hope still burn within her and so having had a small taste of Freedom which she found most appetizing she opted to form a better plan and run away once again to enjoy the imperfect But ultimately liberating Freedom that running away offered it wouldn't be until January 2003 that a now wellth thought out and considered plan would be executed this time she knew exactly what she was doing and where she was going and crucially that she would be welcomed warmly on the other end specifically she now had a carefully prepared suitcase full of everything she needed for school books uniforms things like that as well as the casual clothes that she could stuff in leftover space she was bound for Blackburn a small town 30 mil north of Warrington there she would meet a male friends which some sources say was her boyfriend commute to school on the train finish her a levels escape to University Happy Days for reasons unknown however this plan didn't work out and she soon enough found herself back at the family home still undeterred however she then ran away once again on the 3rd of February and mercifully she actually found some success this time as now her friends had properly come through for her those whose parents whose Hearts weren't made of ice and had made themselves known to her and they were more than happy to let her hop between sofas and spare rooms so long as it kept her safely away from her father now one of the families that she stayed with suggested a wise course of action for shilia forly register as homeless so that she could get on the waiting list for government assistance that would help her get on her feet she did this on the 5th of February and while signing a declaration on the circumstances which had made her homeless freely admitted it was to escape the clutches of her father and the arranged marriage he was planning in Pakistan fortunately shilia managed to happen upon the one government organization in Warrington that wasn't riddled with incompetence as she was immediately taken in by Social Services who found her a place to stay in a residential care home great great that's not how I expected this to go given How This Ends good it was by no means perfect of course it's not it's like housing provided by the government but it's not home but there shailer had finally found a place where she could be safe be supported and get her head down into the books and make her dream of becoming a lawyer a reality I wish I could end today's episode there folks I wish I could turn around to you all now and tell you an uplifting story about a young girl who faced the most crushing of challenges at a young age refused to be defeated by them and worked hard to overcome them that so that she could enjoy all the bounties that life could offer and if she just had A's and a stars at GCSE she's going to get great a level she's going to go to a great University and will absolutely become a lawyer but alas we all know that's not how shaila's story ends her father was to be blunt an absolute nutcase and he wasn't the sort to let his daughter Sher out of his Grand designs and continued to dishonor him by finding happiness and so he crafted a plan most wicked to bring shaia back under his boot he would kidnap her and take her to Pakistan where she would be forced to marry the man he had lined up for her it's going to be very difficult to get her on a plane like right she's already demonstrated that she is not having any of this um also I just want to take minor issue with the word nutcase cuz I feel that that makes it sound like he's crazy and his behavior is crazy but do I think crazy no he's a [ __ ] criminal allegedly I I mean we're pretty sure right if I remember correctly it was the parents the kidnapping it went down on the 10th of February by that time shilia had just settled into a residential home and found herself a girl torn between two juxtaposed states of Mind One in which she felt free liberated and truly happy for the first time in a long time and another in which the weight of her father's proverbial boot still weighed heavily upon her neck and stopped her from letting her guard down which of course you're not just going to suddenly be living in this new place and not feel that even though it's no longer there like every day you're still going to be so formed by that that's the sort of sh by the way parents that is going to someone up for life that's not the sort of thing where it's like oh they move out and everything's fine now that's something that's definitely shaped their personality it's definitely shaped how they are so don't think that being better later is an excuse for not being good now because this sort of stuff affects people pisses me off unfortunately for her those fears proved to be well founded because as she walked to college she found herself a woman stalked if takar had discovered where she now resided guessed at the route she would naturally take and positioned himself and his taxi in a waiting down an otherwise quiet and unassuming culdesac ready to pounce upon her when she passed for filia even had time to react he was on top of her having leapt from the car and firmly clamped his hand around her wrist she pleaded both rim to let go and just to explain what the hell was going on but unfortunately no answers were forthcoming instead she was met with not but an authoritarian bark one that repeatedly demanded that she shut up and get in the car when it became clear that she wouldn't play ball a firm push saw if to car's demands met and with the slam of a sliding door and the click of a one-way childlock she was trapped now we don't know what happen while shailo was in the back of the car as no witnesses to the this stage of events ever came forward but we do know where they ended up back at the family home similarly we don't know much about what happens when she was back at home as our only sources what transpired the testimonies of ifar and Fano and you'll pardon me if I don't exactly consider them reliable sources but we do know that jailia was taken to hro airport on the 18th of February where she bordered a flight to Pakistan with her father with fana and the other children following on the 29th of March and J has another note for me one small note here if you search this case yourself you likely come across a timeline that claims shilia siblings were already in Pakistan by this dat but disregard it reporting on this case is shockingly inaccurate and contradictory and the source for my version of events is the official court papers docket number c0 3416 2008 if you're interested in looking it up for yourself George I love it that you'll go you because you'll read something in the and you'll think oh it's in the papers that's reliable and then you go look up the court documents and S so like one journalist probably got it wrong or bit lazy and then another journalist takes what that previous journalist wrote as fact and then it all spins out into you know eventually another True Crime episode on YouTube where the false fact is repeated and I'm sure that we've got things wrong on this show but I love that George Goes the effort to to do this so thank you George a burning question presents itself at this point yeah compliance on the flight how the hell was she even allowed to board a plane had the airport staff willingly turned a blind eye to an OB obviously distressed young women being trafficked before their very eyes or hat shilia after 8 days in captivity being sufficiently worn down by a Relentless tide of abuse that she simply fell into a state of resigned compliance you've got to assume it's that because if you're in this situation and you're not worn down to a state of compliance you're going to be like I'm not getting on that plane I'm not getting on that plane like literally she was wanting to go to prison rather than go back with her family and she certainly doesn't want to go to Pakistan literally if you're in that situation just say something like I have aing bomb because they're going to arrest you soing hard and then you be like no I didn't have a bomb and yes there's going to be consequences for that but they're going to be better than the alternative here right I'm not encouraging people to say they have a bomb in an airport that sounds terrible but if I was in this position and I wasn't and I'm not blaming her she's I think she's been worn down to nothing I would be like I got to bomb [ __ ] and then I'd be like on the ground in a [ __ ] second gentlemen this is democracy manifest have a look at the headlock here ah yes I see that you know your Judo well but the answer to that is just another detail of this case that we'll simply never know shaila's absence was eventually noted by a German teacher who after being unable to find any answers among shaila's friends raised the alarm on the 19th of February calling the police to report her missing the police response to this consisted of calling fana who of course claimed CL that all was well and there was no need to be alarmed stating that Shaila had just gone to Pakistan for a routine visit to C family as for the police's response to this claim two different versions of events exist one in which the police believed it was totally at face value completely ignoring the enormous pile they had on trilia that documented her abuse rather extensively and screamed at them to take it more seriously and another where they were fully aware something untoward was likely befalling chilia but with her being in Pakistan they found themselves powerless to affect any kind of meaningful response ultimately because the police weren't exactly supportive of this script's production I have no way you love did you try George did they shut you down the way you phrased that I have no way of verifying which version is correct but we do know how she took the news when all was finally revealed really really badly there she was surrounded by her family a crowd amongst which she should have felt safer than any other when suddenly one of her cousins was asked to stand before her by her auntie and was then announced as the man decided that she would be betro to this was nothing short of sickening to poor shilia Not only was her right to her own autonomy being Trampled Under fo but of all people they had chosen one of her cousins naturally she made her disdain for the situation immediately apparent he came in to embrace her and she pushed him away and tried to flee the situation trying to find what safety and distance she was able to in her bedroom but her family were having none of it and an argument of Simply biblical proportions erupted the sanctuary of her own room was violated as her extended family poured in the Kinder and boy do I hate having to describe him as that ones pleaded with her to respect tradition and the crua ones were inches from her face jabbing at her and verbally tearing her down calling her a [ __ ] a shameful embarrassment and everything in between unfortunately the physical aspect of this Onslaught then escalated and she would try to turn and bury her head into her pillow only to be ripped back around to face them and then as tensions flared further still the ever more aggressive jabbing turned into slapping and eventually punches eventually the wicked emotions of her family subsided at least for the time being and por shilia was left alone with her thoughts but this brought no respite for how could she given how young she was even begin to process the ever more tragic situation she found herself in all she wanted was to be left alone to live her life on her own terms and now there she was 4,000 mil from home with no one to turn to for Aid and nowhere that she could find Sanctuary overcome by all of this and while in the depths of Despair she rashly did the only thing she could think of to make it all stop she drank bleach there's a note here from George it's time for an emotion venting footnote folks okay I like to think of myself as quite the articulate Chap and yet here I struggle to find words strong enough to truly convey to you how much this story makes me burn with a raw cellular hate the likes of which I've scarcely encountered in all my days how does someone do this to anyone let alone their own family I simply can't comprehend it demons is the only word that Springs to mind anyone who would do this is an actual non-metaphorical demon and I can only pray that God has something special in mind when these fou demons have returned to the bits of Hell from where they spawned yeah it'sing insane that's my articulate way of putting it that rash act did succeed in getting shailer out of the family home as even they couldn't not send her to hospital afterwards but the injuries she sustained as a result were simply horrendous her mouth throat esophagus and stomach were all badly chemically burned and she was also poisoned as a result of which she was nauseous and vomiting heavily at the hospital doctors did what they could to stabilize her condition and when she was out of intensive care it was recommended that she fly back to the UK for the remainder of her recovery the advice was heed and on the 27th of May after spending 8 weeks in the hospital she returned to the UK but we know very little about the specifics of her return we do know that ifar wasn't in Pakistan by that point as he had flown back home on the 19th of March with two of shaila's siblings but we do not know who if anyone accompanied her back to the UK we don't even know if she saw her extended family again as there is every possibility that given the situation that had befallen her the hospital flagged her case as an extreme welfare concern and coordinated with the British Embassy to arrange a repatriation flight so that she could avoid any future contact with them what we do know however is that during Shaila stay in hospital her cousin withdrew his wish to marry her Force marriage is a rarely enthusiastic arrangements and so he was willing to accept some resistance from her but even for him this was too much if toar upon hearing this and receiving an ear for from his family about the damaged good healer daughter their words not mine was absolutely incensed with rage now from there The Story Goes dark for a time I know that shilia re-enrolled at Priestly college and started a part-time job at the man Webb call center in Warrington on the 3rd of September and I also know that after being discharged from hospital in the UK she continued further follow-up treatment for her injuries as she was recorded as having attended hospital for that purpose on the 5th of September but beyond that nothing I could also find no sources that attested to ifast temperament as the months went on Following shaila's return to the UK but given the horrible deed he'd go on to commit against during coming time I think we're fair to assume that things only continued to go from bad to worse on that front the murder the day that would be shaila's last the 11th of September 2003 began like any other which sad meant that it was her day filled with strife and anguish right out of the gates with ifar and fana being on her case the moment she Rose in the morning as she dragged herself to the bathroom to shower and brush her teeth her parents took turns to shout passing obscenities at her through the door when she emerged from the bathroom and descended downwards to face the fragrant hostility the echoing bitant was replaced by a still and tense silence one that was only broken by a sporadic Tut voiced to show disagreements with her every breath and action and the crash of porcelain as a plate of whatever scraps fana could muster from the back of the fridge was thrown in front of her shilia then escaped this coldness and set course for her school where mercifully she found some brief respite amongst her kind and caring friends the proceedings there were normal or as normal as anything was for Shaila at that point the poor girl finding herself trying to must all the energy she could to focus on her studies and work towards that golden future away from her parents that she yearned for so dearly all the while the crushing darkness of her situation chipped away at the facade of her psyche and attempted to drag her back down to misery with the toing of the bell at 3:30 she then headed to a part-time job at the call center where once again she stealed herself and tried to do something to improve her situation putting in a few hours in the early evening and further growing the little Nest Egg of saving she was building to make sure that she could be totally independent once she escaped to University the following year unfortunately once her shift ended she made a grave miscalculation one the would turn farana and iar's ey on her with fatal consequence when she arrived at her job she changed out of a school uniform and into a humble lilac t-shirt the few hours she spent at work being the one opportunity she had to dress how she wanted free from the rules of her school and the judgmental comments of her parents and when she clocked off she had forgotten to change back out of it and back into the traditional garments her parents demanded she wear so when fana met her in the adjacent car park to take her home Fury consumed her the simple Act of wearing that t-shirt was confirmation that their daughter on on some level was still daring to resist her and if deas attempts of subjugation we don't know the specifics of how fana confronted chaila but we do know it was bad and for the entire length of the drive home fana's dissatisfaction was made Beyond apparent both physically and verbally when they made it home things only got worse for poor shilia as by then ifar joined in the onslaught against her for several hours the verbal volleys and physical pillaring escalated ever further until suddenly silence as both f and ifar stormed off leaving Shaila alone in her room for today at least it appeared as though Shaila had passed through the eye of the storm but unfortunately that wasn't the case at all fan and ifar had snapped and reached the end point and now the pair were constructing a conspiracy most wicked a fact revealed only by their hushed Whispers And frantic scurrying about the house as they gathered what was needed for the foul task at hand soon enough with the Hasty plot thrown together they pounced fana turned to ifar and uttered the words finish it here and then fell upon chilia with all her might pinning the poor girl down while ifar then moved in with a plastic bag pushing it down on his daughter's throat as far as he possibly could and then bringing his hands down on her Airways these are her parents shilia tied tried to scream with a bag blocking her throat she uttered not but a desperate mumble her defensive instincts kicked in and she tried to resist with all the might that she could must desperately fighting to pull her arms free from her mother's grasp so that she could push her parents away and rip the bag from her throat but it was all to no avail her form emaciated and withered as it was now simply couldn't must the strength to break free with no other Avenue open to her she began thrashing the only limbs she had free her legs hoping to kick her parents away from her but this too was to no end and soon enough her body used up the little oxygen it had left her vision began to fade her limbs fell over weaker and soon enough she perished her body falling limp under the cumulative weight of both of her parents unrelenting her parents continued to push down upon shaila's lifeless remains they were adamant that No Quarter should be granted to their daughter and they kept pressing down upon her until there could be absolutely no doubt that she was dead soon enough they were certain and so they released their grips and took a step back to examine the wicked scene they just created they shed not a single tear nor the slightest morsel of regret because for them although tense the situation they found themselves in was a joyous one the daughter they had grown to hate so much who had become an icon of their self-imposed shame had been vanquished and their honor had been restored these people these people you have no honor youing animals I hope you're in prison and it's days like this that it's a little bit disappointing that the UK doesn't have theing death penalty all there remained to do now was dispose of shaila's body because while they might have felt no shame in their actions they were still fully aware of the retribution that would fall upon them should their deed be discovered to this end shaila's body was wrapped in a collection of sheets and Bin bags and bound together with thick industrial tape then after a quick peek out through the curtains to make sure the coast was clear on their sleepy Suburban Street they fered her away into the box of if car's taxi and quickly checked to make sure that she couldn't be seen through the rear window the pentious pair then parted paths ifar hopped in the driver's seat and took off down the road Bound for the vast expanse of the Lake District and fana turned her attention back toward the house and the various loose ends that lay inside in the form of her other children all of whom had witnessed what had just happened Gooding God thankfully she spared them from sharing shaila's fate and instead descended upon them verbally howling and Belling at them as she Unleashed a mad toade about how she had only done what needed to be done going around and around in long- winded circles in which she explained her supposed justification for the ACT again and again the children in response did nothing but listen for they were still absolutely Paralyzed by fear that they might be next if they red her up at all eventually after what felt like ours fana's rambling trade began to reach its end the pace of her speaking slowed and she began to regain control of her senses but then as she began to think the anger that had consumed her previously was replaced by another emotion fear now terrified of getting caught the demon within her reemerged with renewed Vigor and she bellowed a simple threat to her children speak of this and you're next she was calmed down only by the words of one of her children who shockingly having now processed the night's events came out in support of their mother yeah but they're a kid this is like I have no judgment for that turning to the others and explaining their belief that chilia deserved what had happened to her following this fana assumed that the message had been understood loud and clear and dismissed her children for the night sending them off to bed as for what if thear was up to while all of this was happening we unfortunately know very little about The Dumping of shaila's body information is so scant in fact that even the official court papers refused to commit to a solid story of where he was was and what he was up to with them even leaving the door open to the possibility that he may have had help from someone we can't even be certain that where shaia's body was found was where she was initially dumped due to animals let's say I don't really want to type out anymore on that particular matter the initial investigation following shaila's Grizzly murder the children true to their promise to aana kept their lips sealed and didn't breathe a word of what they had witnessed on that Wicked night to anyone and so as a result it was quite some time before the police became aware of her disappearance her friends were the first to notice chiler had been a popular and well-known girl at school and her chair being empty was a difficult thing to miss their concern was immediate but even still none of them for one second at that early stage began to fear that the worst might have happened to her after all sudden absences from school were hardly a rare occurrence for Shaila and so her friend simply assumed that this was another one of those days in which her father was acting like a nutcase and an entered yet another pseudo traditional justification of why she wasn't allowed to attend school not to say that they weren't worried on any level mind you because of course they were they knew full well what shailo was subjected to at home when ifar got like that but even then knowing that not one of them suspected that he would ever go so far as to kill her and so their worry was more focused on hoping that she emerged from the latest round of paternal rage without having to suffer any bruises this time as the day wore on however they did start to worry that something bad might have happened to her because normally when she was trapped at home by ifar she at least managed to sneak them the odd communication to keep them updated a text message here and there the occasional whispered phone call when her parents were otherwise occupied things like that but this time their phones remained silent there was absolutely nothing even when she was trafficked to Pakistan she managed to keep in touch outright dread remained checked at the door however at least for now is they were adamant there must be some rational explanation for what was going on perhaps if darar had smashed her phone while in Rage thus leaving her unable to get in touch something like that but there was only so long that they could remain willfully ignorant I don't think they're willfully ignorant I think they're just ignorant like I don't think they could expect CU murder is like of course abuse is horrible and wrong but it's also way more common than murder and with each successive Day of Silence from Shaila that came and went an elephant's most G increasingly filled her place in the classroom very nice George nice bit of writing there one by one all of her friends started to have the same Grim thoughts but no one wanted to be the first to say it the inclination instead being conveyed by silent concern stricken Expressions eventually however with the situation looking ever more dark come late September shila's friends all stealed themselves to face the apparent reality of the situation and they went to the school with their concerns fortunately the school was ahead of them in raising the alarm yes remember this is a good school they they were on it as on the 18th of September amidst the cacophony of noise that overtook the playgrounds at lunchtime something very worrying indeed had been overheard by a passing teacher shaila's siblings discussing her Disappearance in hush tones the teacher already familiar with shaila's frequent abuses and the many stories of trouble at home that were passed about the staff room felt a jolt of alarm and positioned themselves to be able to subtle EES drop on the rest of the conversation I don't know exactly what was said or even by whom as this part of the case is very badly documented both by the media and in official court documentation but what I do know for sure is that whatever was discussed was sufficiently worrying as to make that teacher immediately abandon their duties on the playground and take what was overheard straight to the teacher who took it upon themselves to call the police and report shilia as missing that very instant good this school again fing fantastic and teachers as well this is just Mah the police were Swift in their response and a search operation was launched with the case initially being treated as a missing person's case a small team was despatched at their first point of action being the area surrounding shila's home at this point although eager to find shilia and ensure her safety no one on the investigating team was overly worried as after all in the UK 80% of missing children are found alive and well within 24 hours of their disappearance being reported and given shaila's history of running away from home to escape her father only to turn up shortly thereafter the police responding didn't believe that this occasion would be any different no no reason for them to not poor policeing at all it's just they're going based on what's happened before as his routine in missing children's cases the police also popped over to the Ahmed residents to interview ifar and fana at this point even despite shaila's history they were under no form of Suspicion and instead the interview was to be conducted simply to better acquaint the police with the circumstances that led up to a disappearance and see if some nuggets of information could be panned out that might expedite finding wherever she was hiding they soon found the suspicious gaze of the investigators firmly on them however as the scene that met them had more red flags than a communist parade there's a note here from George again I am aware that the police's response here doesn't exactly match with how I told the playground story but unfortunately I'm able to explain why this disparity existed between the teachers and the police's response it could be poor communication a dismissive attitude anything really but unfortunately due to the police not exactly being helpful with the scripts production I'm unable to say how this came about eyebrows were first raised before the investigators had even got through the front door because when they first knocked the door remained firmly closed with no one coming to let them in so far so normal they likely hadn't heard them knock the responding officers reasons and so they knocked again but harder again nothing getting somewhat short on patience after being left standing outside yet again one of the investigators present nailed down and went to announce his presence through the letter box at which point he overheard something most peculiar fana very harshly demanding that all of her children stay upstairs don't speak to the officers and stay quiet certainly this was all but still not enough to raise suspicions in and of itself after all there was a whole multitude of reasons why fana might have done such a thing maybe she expected to get emotional and didn't want her kids to see her lose control for example whatever the reason so far so explainable the officers reasoned yeah again because murder is rare it's unusual you wouldn't expect it's not what you jump to because you're like statistically unlikely like I always think about that fascinating comment where it's like you see a dude and he's got a guitar over his shoulder he's got like a flannel shirt or whatever he's like he's wearing his favorite a band t-shirt or whatever and it's like he looks like a musician just say looks very much like a musician and you ask the question is this man a musician or a teacher and most people aren't a musician but the reality is statistically he's much more likely to be a teacher because there are way more teachers than musicians but again it's like people don't you shouldn't jump to murder because most of the time it's not murder what was less explainable and May the initial Behavior seem all the more suspicious was fana and iar's conduct once the investigators were finally welcomed inside far from the emotional wrecks or the brave faces keeping a lid on things that they'd normally suspect they instead seem calm and detached almost as if they didn't care about shaila's well-being deep and meaningful questions intended to get to the bottom of shaila's psyche were met with a shrug and worse still questions about her acquaintances particularly male ones were met with scorned expressions and furrowed brows the investigators Loki expected this from if after all they had read shaila's file and so they were well aware about the previous times that his abusive Behavior had seen her go missing and referred to Social Services but to see such Behavior duplicated in fana was much more worrying indeed and the pair found themselves officially marked as Persons of Interest going forwards so strong were the police's suspicions that come November they decided to install a cover listening device in the armed family home I wish I knew more about this it sounds like a fascinating twist in the tail but unfortunately the only source I were able to find discussing this were media articles all of which were basically copy and pastes to one another I wasn't able to track down the original article from which the others were copied and pasted keep working hard J know so unfortunately I'm unable to tell you about the kind of device they fitted how they snuck it into the home and how long they operated it for what I am able able to tell you however is that the device yielded no concrete evidence it did however further convince the police of a and if car's guilt as apparently the conversations they recorded regarding chilia had a conscious of guilt so they're really not talking about it do they think the police are listening that's pretty paranoid as you would be after you've murdered someone eventually as 2003 loomed to a close and with no truly damning evidence having emerged the police began compiling the scant evidence they had available to see if they could nail fana and ifar on anything related to shaila's death so convinced were they of their guilt eventually after much head bashing they thought they might at least be able to make a kidnapping charge stick and so they were arrested in December that Year good the desperate move proved an unwise one however because in the case was past the crown prosecution service or CPS they ruled there was insufficient evidence for the charges to hold up in a court of law and so the pair were released in June 2004 and given a full apology from cumri police for an overzealous arrest Christ I mean yes they're kind of right though the police were plucking at straws come September 2004 with new leads having completely dried up and the case quickly going cold the police submitted all of their evidence to the CPS to determine if they could actually pursue a case against them at this point or if they were going to give up 6 months later Robin Spencer QC replied to the police and told them in no uncertain terms that there was simply not enough evidence to pursue the case got a notif for George for those not fluence in British legali QC here refers to Queen's Council or now it'd be Casey because the Queen's dead and we got a king so it's Casey they must have had to change all of their business cards a set of barrs and solicitors for who the Monarch appoints to represent them are be in charge of prosecutions to achieve the state as a barrister must have practiced law for 10 years and be recommended by the Lord Chancellor yeah it's like a very prestigious thing to have as a barrister from there the investigation was suspended and shaila's case began to go cold the only thing keeping any hea in it being an investigation by the coroners Court I.E some legal loophole jumping that have been done given these suspicious circumstances so that the cause of death could be put on shaila's death certificate that process was completed on the 11th of January 2008 with the coroner's Court inquest returning a verdict that trilia had been unlawfully killed and with that there was nothing further to be done and shaila's case went fully cold whoa oh my God I did not realize there was this delay wow A Bug's Life it's a Curious Thing folks you see in my original draft of today's script I found the fact that the arm at home had been bugged most curious and I wish to share some interesting insights with you on the matter and so I left a little footnote vacant intending to fill it with the words of one of my fellow writers who's significantly more informed of me in such matters and who I poked to give me some insight but you see when they got them to me so in-depth was their answer that to includ it as a mere footnote would have rather ruined the flow of the previous chapter and so here we are able to enjoy what they have written for us in full length but just who did you ask a he you SC it's got to be Liam right Liam's a lawyer Liam's another writer for this Channel and he's like a proper lawyer so I guess it's Liam well there's only one person I could talk to you know him you love him his brain has more wrinkles than I've had hot dinners he's casual criminalist go to clever man for us writers when we find ourselves drowning IL legales it's Liam so let's talk about the law of bugging let's start off with a simple question what is a bug well like any true liar I must give one response to that question and that's it depends you see normal people would generally agree a bug is a listening device placed on a person or within a premises to record audio within that premises or the locality of that person that's exactly what I would think a bug is I'd say if it was on a person I'd call it a wire like this is just from movies this is entirely from movies like someone's wearing a wire but their office is bugged some people might even Define a bug as such a broad term to include listening devices placed on the telephone or mobile telephone providers control box enabling them to listen into all our sworded phone calls then we get to the definition used by The Strangers of people the people who can't quite accept the Monopoly isn't actually fun and that strange long black pajamas and white horse aair wigs haven't been in fashion for a few hundred years yes I mean lawyers you see in The Strange World of the law we Define things very differently bugs being no exception so whereas any ordinary person would Define a bugging to only be where an electronic or mechanical devic has been used to listen in on another's Communication in law a bugging occurred simply when the police or Security Services use any means to record or document any other person's private conversations okay fair enough now you may be saying wow really interesting Li but I don't see the relevance and to that I have two responses first I'm paid by the words Savage who's fa it's me it's me I every word I read I'm like chinging seconds George wasn't able to find any details on the bugging in this case something I took as a personal challenge so I fired up the Wi-Fi logged into westla the far superior database authors note this is a lawyer joke we all know that no database should ever make up for the loss of humanity it takes to get into this field and I had a look for myself while looking at this I discovered that the only mentions of the bugging of the Armed family can be found in newspaper reports and that there's no mention whatsoever in any of the Court signed transcripts documents or law reports yeah it means it didn't happen right which means only one thing actually it means two things but the other statement sounded cooler first that the police argued in the trial relevant to this bugging that exposing the procedure they used to bug the place would jeopardize ongoing investigations what first police used oh okay so they the police wait so okay it did happen and the police like we don't want to talk about it because it will compromise investigations fair enough in my experience that means they used some form of Technology Beyond just placing the bug in a coat handbag or window sill and it means they actually got their inner James Bond on second it means we can't actually be certain what type of bugging was employed in this case as I mentioned earlier in English and Welsh law a bugging warrant is identical as a warrant that the police use when they're seeking commission to place a listening device in a house listening to a phone call or just sneak in an undercover officer however you didn't come to this lecture to be told that there's nothing I can tell you you see unlike allegedly in America in this country our courts actually do something when the government tries to bug and spy on everyday people do they li like the five eyes and stuff we're all SP they're they're all spying on everyone else aren't they because it's like you can't spy on your own citizens but you can spy on other people's and then they just share that information wasn't that the whole Snowden thing like the gchq and the NSA that's why we have the regulation of investigatory Powers Act 2000 or as we lawyers like to call it because it sounds cooler Ripper this act sets out the required circumstances the prosecution must demonstrate in order to get an approved bugging warrant the first requirement is that the intrusive surveillance method in question must have grounds in its support which are in the interest of national security or for the purpose of preventing or detecting serious crime or in the interest of the economic well-being of the UK okay or finally that's got to be some spy right only spies are going to be doing that they're only going to be bugging people about economic welfare or finally approved by the Home Secretary at least we can trust the Home Secretary to not be corrupt and approve over 99% of all bugging warrants given to them right right right oh no is that the stat is it really that's just a loophole now this element is easy in this case all the police would have had to have demonstrated was a preponderance of evidence that shaila's family had some sort of role or knowledge about her disappearance now we find a problem though how could this have happened you see it's not enough that one of the grounds above which I'll refer to as section 32 grounds from now on exist not only must they exist but a senior police officer or more realistically their prosecutor must demonstrate such exists in open court as required by section 32A of Ripper so have you spotted the problem no I don't know what the problem is I'm trying to work it out I don't see the problem just get the police officer to approve it it's an old problem arguably the oldest of problems that's right the right to a fair trial that an only little bugger of a principle started all the way back in 1215 with a Magna carter even it didn't actually arise there but i s lecture for another time you see the principle of fair trial means that you're put on trial by the state and you have the right to not only know what on trial for but the right to put up a reasonable defense so how the hell is this done for Section 32 hearings obviously if the police just knocked on your door and said hey we want to bug your house but we have to sue you to do so you want to come and argue about it it probably gives things away so instead we came up with a very British response so what is that response well rule eight of the magistrate court rules on Ripper from 2012 state that the court only needs to let the prosecution make representations and that prosecution must be given a full two-day Hearing in order to make such representations representations that do not need to be noted down kept on record in any way or even remembered for the actual trial now yet again you may be asking but Liam earlier on weren't you moaning about the Americans allowing their alphabet agencies to spy on people for so much as a dodgy Facebook page I'm quite lost essentially in order for the police to spy on someone with a bug they'd have to tell them and there's some special rule that allows them to get around that oh okay it's just like basically you have to just convince some judge that you're allowed to that you want to bug someone and they have to be yes and then someone keeps an eye on you to make sure that you're not being too the police aren't being too naughty Boom the robbery that reignited the case the Long Cold investigation into shaila's disappearance took a curious turn in August 2010 when it suddenly found itself heated up once again the cause a robbery of all things allow me to explain the robbery in question was one targeted at the Med Family Home and it was quite the dramatic Affair as three imposing balac clava clad men burst into the home in the dead of the night putting the door through with a fearsome kick and descending upon its valuables like a pack of vultures to a fresh cadav the men in question were also armed one with a pistol one with a hammer and one with an iron bar at the time only Pana was home and she was given a clump around the head by one of the aforementioned weapons before she was tied up and in a bit of twist of irony some sources even claimed that she had a plastic bag stuffed in her mouth to stop the screaming but personally I'll take that with a pinch of salt note from George here if you're sensing a certain joviality to my turn in this paragraph dear viewers that because I'm actually quite enjoying the irony happen to be a big time shardon Freud enjoyer when it's deserved so foran having to do a Miss Slither of the terror that she imposed upon poor sha well that Sparks Joy that's the good yes it is only should choked to death on that plastic bag but this is where the story gets twisty folks because that brutal robbery was organized by someone that we've already met in this story one of shafia nameless sisters there are two different explanations in the sources for how the scheme got rumbled either a the three men who rampaged to the home as friends of the sister were recognized by Fano who immediately called the police and pointed a mighty accusatory finger at them or B the sister tried to flog the loot at a local porn brokers who discovered the goods were nicked when doing their usual checks that such stores legally forced to do whichever it was the sister was rumbled in good time and soon found herself in the back of a panda car as a result on route to the local Nick to explain herself now this is all Jolly exciting and all but how did this lead to the truth about shilia coming out well you see the sister found herself in the interview room facing a lengthly prison stretch for her misdeeds and she had an epiphany maybe that charge could disappear if she threw her parents under the bus yes which you should definitely do let's go with a 5year stint at Her Majesty's pleasure on the cards it wasn't a proposal she had to ponder for long and so no sooner had the idea come into her head than she was singing like a canary about shaila's foul murder and booting up parents right under the big heavy bus Bound for freedom and it was a scheme that worked too she was given a 12month prison sentence that was suspended for 2 years i. she never did time and functionally got off scot-free and was placed in a witness protection program then all hell let loose as cumber police's homicide team moved at a frantic Pace to blow the dust of shaila's case investigate her sister's claims and Gobble up all of the fresh evidence that had emerged there from naturally shilia sister had her brain probed for any and all details that she could recall that may be of use in addition to recounting the murder she also gave investigators a full account of the multi-year long Tera of abuse that chilia had to endure now we've already explored this testimony in depth as it was my main source for earlier chapters so I'm not going to tread old water by going over it again now and neither shall I go into too much of how the investigation went from here as frankly the word count is liable to get just a bit out of hand if we do this is already a long episode so for the purposes of the story going forward just know that the police took the testimony as we heard it conducted further research to verify its authenticity then pushed the new and improved case back to the CPS as a result of which with them now finding the evidence most solid indeed if car and fisan were rearrested on the 7th of September 2011 this time on suspicion of murder the trial now it took some time for the CPS to get things in order following if toar and Fran's arrest but come May 2012 everything was ready and the trial commenced at Chester Crown Court on the of that month with Justice Roderick Evans presiding the tri began with Justice Evans summing up the full details of the charge to which if the car and fisan were being accused and that read basically like a duller drier and more legales version of the podcast up until now so we're not going to get bogged down in that either then the floor was handed over to hear the defense's initial claims if darar fana or rather their public defender their state provided defense lawyer went into full denial mode completely rejecting not only the charge of killing Shaila but also the further claim that they had repeatedly and consistently abused her over a prolonged period in his recounting sure there was some bickering here and there about shaila's desire to live a more westernized lifestyle but these exchanges they claimed although he remained fundamentally cordial and respectful there's a note here from George regular enjoyers of my scripts will no that be aware of how troubled I always find myself at this part of the story Torn Between the emotive part of my psyche that finds lawyers who defend monsters morally abhorent parasites who Abby to squeeze out a turd on the victim grave if it means they can keep up with the finance payments on their Porsche and the rational half of my brain that recognizes the fact that although certainly unpleasant and unenviable this is actually a damned important role as it represents a hard one and most cherished right in our society the right to a free trial exactly yeah it's like that's it these it sucks that people are out there defending murderers and rapists and all that stuff but people do deserve a fair trial and part of that trial is having a defense and that means there has to be a lawyer doing that defense it's how it works otherwise it would be tyranny well I've managed to pin down a few defense lawyers over pints to pick their brains and it turns out the vast majority of them are actually low-key and kind of broke as far as lawyers go anyway the image of the sleazy defense lawyer earning Millions to sneak a bastard off the hook being one that does exist but very much not representative the vast majority of defense lawyers being people who willingly surrender the chance of a big fat paycheck in favor of a life serving that hard one right to a fair trial particularly state provided lawyers such as in this case so well actually respect yeah yeah for sure I didn't I I guess the thing is I didn't think they were very rich because he's a public defender like he's paid for by the state and they're they're not paying a ton then it was on to the witnesses which Shia's sister the one I intentionally not naming who organized the robbery being the first to take the stand once again she recounted the story as we explained it earlier detailing the abuse the murder and the attempts at silencing her and her siblings through fear after her a plethora of other Witnesses took the stand as the weeks bore on with there being eyewitnesses who attested to the abuse chaila endured before her death expert Witnesses who offered further insight into the defendant's unique motivations for their actions and everything in between the TR continued on in this manner until the 8th of January when in a significant development fana changed her plea now she completely recanted her earlier version of events and instead admitted that there had in fact been an incident of violence on the 11th of September 2003 one in which if dear was furious with rage and at slap shilia in the face repeatedly before he went on to punch her two or three times in the Torso fana then claims she had attempted to intervene and stop the violence but was pushed away by both hands and also punched with a clenched fist oh she's she's made that decision hasn't she seem's like no no we're a team husbands we're a team and then she's like wait we're [ __ ] I'm throwing you under the bus before you can throw me under the bus you son of a [ __ ] then powerless to stop what was happening despite her best effort she then claimed to take her youngest daughter the only sh beside shilia supposedly present upstairs out of fear for her safety after which about 20 or so minutes later she heard a car leave and came back downstairs to find both Shaila and if thear gone along with his car with him only returning at 6:30 a.m. the next day without Shaila now we're not stupid here folks we all know what friends was trying to do here having found herself kicked under the bus by her daughter she was hoping to use her husband as leverage to push him herself out of its path and leave him to take its full proverbial blunt but but did this Ploy work that is the question I had to tell you that no it did not work the main reason the black failed was thanks to that covert listening device the police planted in the armed home the recordings of which were played out for the court to hear and showed her clearly being complient in the conspiracy with Choice quotes of fana being played including if the slightest thing comes out of your mouth we will be in real trouble remember that and today is not a day to be beaten up okay are you listening to me I'm talking to you the tri continued for several weeks after this change to fana's plea and on the 3rd of August the jury retired to deliberate in the face of such overwhelming evidence it didn't take long for them to render their verdict and they went back to the courtroom later that day to hear it be read out by the judge but rather than me Tell It To You Secondhand let's hear the words straight from Justice evans's mouth there a long quote so I'll read the all thing the jury has found you both guilty of the murder of your daughter Shaila she was 17 years of age when you killed her what was it that brought you to her parents the people who had given her life to the point of killing her you chose to bring up your family in Warrington but although you lived in Warrington your social and cultural attitudes were those of rural Pakistan and it was those you imposed on your children Shaila was a determined able and Ambitious Girl who wanted to live a life which was normal in the country and the town in which you had chosen to live and bring up your children however you could not tolerate the life Shaila wanted to live although she went to Local Schools you objected to her socializing with girls from what has been referred to as the white Community you objected to her wearing Western clothes and you objected to her having contact with boys she was being squeezed between two cultures the culture and way of life that she saw around her and wanted to embrace and the culture and way of life you wanted to impose on her your problem was that in what you referred to as your community shaila's conduct was bringing shame upon you and your concern about being shamed in your community was greater than the love of your Charles in order to rid yourselves of that problem you killed shilia by suffocating her in the presence of your four children you killed one daughter but you have blighted the lives of your remaining children there is only one sentence that I can impose upon you and that is a sentence of imprisonment for life you will not be elgible to be considered for parole until you have served those 25 years in prison when you have done so you will not be released automatically you will be released only when the parole board is satisfied that you no longer present a danger that is excellent that's a nice lengthly stretch I mean I think they should be executed but uh 25 years minimum I like and this judge very eloquently put what I was trying to say earlier about the culture things and he's obviously he's a judge he spent time writing this he's it got a big brain of course he puts it better than me but that's basically exactly what I was trying to articulate with that the pair were carted away to begin serving their sentences they remain impr prison to this very day where they belong and at the time of this writing they answer even at halfway through their minimum sentences and they won't be back out onto the streets until 2037 at the earliest the details Beyond this which prison is holding them their behavior while incarcerating Etc weirdly I was able to find basically nothing reliable or concrete given how high profile this case was I find this weird to say the least to the point I'm almost tempted to Dawn my tinf foil out and speculate as to whether there has been some government jiggery pokery to repress information pertaining to their imprisonment But ultimately such speculation is neither here nor there and so our Story begins to come towards its end on honor killings now right over the Casual Criminal has seen me get to grips with all manner of abhorrent evil over the years from deranged Mass Shooters who slaughtered innocence by the Dozen to unhinged Mobsters who killed entire families to settle gambling debts and yet even among this loathsome lineup there is always something about filicide that just hits me the wrong way that takes the wind out of my sails pierces my heart and reduces me to tears in a way that those other cases despite arguably being even more evil simply don't yeah it is like it's so outside the general Insanity it's so biologically against us like we do anything for our kids like anything and because they're like they're what how we pass on like our DNA which at a fundamental level is what being human is all about like in the the most basic evolutionary sense and then you've done this and then you're like you snuff it out beyond the insanity of everything else I've tried to say today it just seems it's it's also bi logically stupid and just it's just crazy with that in mind I think it's very important that we take some time to discuss and understand honor killings more generally because such horrific crimes simply cannot be allowed to be brushed under the proverbial rug in our consciousnesses as it turns out honor based violence as it's called properly has been extensively researched and by looking at papers such as report of the special rapur on violence against women its causes and consequences published by Rasheed am Manu in 2011 books such as the rutage internal National hbur on feminicide published in 2023 in pertinent NOS such as the un's population fund UNF it appears as though anywhere between 5,000 and 12,000 women a year are murdered in honor killings making it a tragic reality that the wicked fate that Shaila met is far from unique there is every possibility that the true figure May tragically however be higher still as the UNF stresses that it is difficult to obtain such accurate data for honor killings as family members just as we saw with Shaila are often complicit in covering up the crimes meaning their disappearances SL deaths are never reported and thus they evade being included in the figures yeah I would imagine that is a huge number if not the majority so this number of 5 to 12,000 I think is an undercount as for where honor killings are most prevalent our most best sources of the comprehensive study published by Phyllis Chesler in 2010 titled worldview Trends in honor killings and the similarly comprehensive shame and honor the violence of gendered norms under conditions of global crisis published by Shelley Feldman in 2010 as well they highlights that subcontinental Asia Pakistan Bangladesh India Etc and the Levant Syria Jordan Lebanon Etc are particular hot beds of honor killings they also highlight that as migration has increased from these regions to the Western World in the last 50 to 60 years onor killings as a trend have also come to the West with that demographic change notably however eager to combat potential stereotyping that would suggest that such killings are a Muslim only thing as some would want you to believe these studies also highlight honor killings that have also had Catholic perpetrators from a mix of Nations such as Brazil Italy and the United States little note from Georgia here now I know I have an audience of worldly and veritable wrinkly brains on the channel so I know I don't have to say this specifically but as we're on a quite sensitive topic here let's not leave anything to chance obviously not everyone from these regions and not every Muslim partakes in such violence we're discussing 12,000 incidents amongst a population of actual billions tragic though these incidents are let's not carried away and Tau everyone from these demographics with this brush yeah it's like I feel this is also totally unnecessary to say because people listening to this podcast you got big brains you know that's how it works but just in case just in case then at first I was thinking I'd cut that out because it's like so obvious but just in case so now that we've established that honor killings are something that is unique to know one people's place or culture and given the surprisingly large reach of this show surprising George surprisingly small reach of this show everyone should listen I feel it is important that we take the time to discuss proactive steps that can actually be taken to combat it and don't worry this isn't me having my Cony 2012 moment and thinking that I'm going to change the world with an internet campaign oh my God I remember Cody 2012 it's a long ass time ago but if there is even one person in the audience who is having to indure even a fraction of what was inflicted upon poor shilia I want them to know that they have the power to escape their situation and live the life they deserve and with that in mind I found up some Charities who deal with forc marriages and honor based violence and asked them what information I should pass on to you George you Legend mate well done the first thing I was told I must tell you all about is the forced marriage unit an arm of the British state that specifically combats this kind of abuse and has International jurisdiction if needed although I pray it is and their contact details can be found on their doov do UK page and hopefully our editor will put that on the screen now just to be safe you also apparently don't need to be a British citizen specifically to seek their aid but equivalent operations exist in most countries and I was told that for best results you should seek out whichever one belongs to a country that you have citizenship for I was also told to steer you towards kmen Iana a British territory dedicated to nothing but the support of both past and present victims of forc marriages they're meant to be the best of the lot and their contact details can easily be found on their website and also hopefully on the screen now as with the forced marriage unit however I was told to pass on to you that you're likely to be best served by a charity in a country where you hold citizenship as they'll have better familiarity with the specific legal system which will be used to deliver you to safety Google is the place to go to find those most pertinent apparently finally I was also asked to make one simple fact loud and clear if you ever find yourself being trafficked for a force marriage get to your Embassy by any means necessary and if you have to run to the police and get them to give you a lift just get yourself to your Embassy and you'll be taken care of yeah it's nice there embassies around the world doing this for people like I live in a big capital city and there's embassies everywhere and you're like it's cool that people could just go there if they have some trouble it's like help me please I'm sure it doesn't actually work like that most of the time they'll be like bro you got yourself into this mess but for [ __ ] like this they will help you dismember dependencies number one I've got to be honest folks shaila's case absolutely broke me emotionally I'm no stranger to clocking off work with the big sad when you're a true crime writer it comes with the territory but there is just something about filicide that absolutely guts me I was the same when I wrote the yoga ball murders with this in mind expect my next one to be some kind of heist or Triad romp folks I can't do this again for a while number three when I first came across today's case shout out to Rachel again this time for suggesting it I thought fate had finally saw fit to deliver something into my lap that would be nice and straightforward to research after all it was a high-profile British case so surely I reasoned I'd be absolutely swamped with expansive and well researched media articles and easy availability of public documents and probably loads of books that I'd be able to use as I ran around like a hungry criminal caterpillar gobbling up every single Source I could get my hands on I was even getting to research in my native language for a change which was a treat unfortunately that proved not to be the case at all and I quickly found myself with egg on my face and looking a right knob because actually shaila's case turned out to be the trickiest one I've ever researched and by a significant margin too primarily this is due to three main reasons firstly the British media being full of Idol layabouts who would rather copy and paste someone else's work rather than actually do any investigative journalism of their own and I feel like I need to qualify that as well there are some incredible journalists out there who are doing incredible work this doesn't apply to all journalists but like the trashier websites and Rags it is just like as someone who does like facts it's that you read this thing online you're like oh wow that is a fact and then you read it somewhere else and you're like wow okay that backs it up and then you realize oh they're just all copying each other and not sourcing and you're just like oh God that it's just a disaster secondly the British police force were about as transparent as a brick and thirdly the fact that barely any books have been written about the case despite how huge it was at time on this first point the one about British journalist being useless time and time again in my research I'd come across an interesting point I wish to learn more about and so as I always do I'd hit up Google in the newspaper archive both of which usually see me write only to find myself going in circles as I navigated from one near identical article to another this never ended to the point that barely 3 hours into my research and I'd given up on ever getting anything useful out of such sources and every further one I checked out just on the off chance of British joural somewhere actually bothered to do their job at some point left me more and more disheartened on the second point the one about the police I just don't know what it is time and time again in my research but this podcast or my academic work I'll approach the British police force with what I believe to be a very basic request for information and also to give them the opportunity to provide a statement so they can have their perspective a only to be met with a snotty in my opinion denial an open Palm demanding a shocking amount of silver or just simply getting ignored for cumber police it was the first one of those so what did I do I followed a freedom of information request hoping that it would insert a boot into the bottom with sufficient strength as to get the information flowing freely but alas it was not meant to be as this Freedom of Information request was returned to me with a lengthly explanation of why they weren't telling me Jack I don't know what it is folks I have an easier time getting information out of North Korea's police force than I do the British ones and I wish that was a hyperbolic statement but no it is actually easier yeah that's kind of nuts Freedom of Information is fascinating you can find all sorts of interesting stuff like I remember I was looking up I I took a big trip to the ukuk and I had are driving to the center of London and I was paying like the congestion charge or whatever and somehow I stumbled upon like someone had freedom information requested the uh the number of fines that people had got for like driving in without paying the congestion charge and also what the success rate of follow-up was and it was like yeah foreign blad cars it's just you're fine like this was like it was like a a small percentage were actually successfully fined because they' just leave and then the government would send them a letter to be like yo you have to pay us Mone and the person plated in like Saudi Arabia or whatever Saudi Arabia I think was the biggest offender although what Saudi plated cars are doing in London I just don't know but they' just be like no we're not we're not paying that and it was like zero Pines paid on the third Point as I said it simply appears as though the world's crime authors have yet to get to shilia most books written regarding her are very dry legally textbooks that basically just recount the court papers that I already read anyway an example of which would be forced marriage and honor killings in Britain private lives Community crimes and public policy perspective Ives by Christina Julios a decent work to be sure just not what I needed as for books concerning shaia's case specifically I learned of one murder of shaia Ahmed by Russ or Jesse and I couldn't find a single copy anywhere not even in the British Library as a result of this I had to write a day script with a significantly lighter body of research than I would prefer namely court documents the odd publicly released police report and statements and the few news articles that were useful and of course Rachel's very useful testimony I think I've done a good job of things or considered make no mistake I just hope that with time more details come to light so that poor shaila's story can be better told George I think you did a bang up job well done and that's where we end today's episode everybody thank you for being here [Music]

Channel: The Casual Criminalist

Views: 161,853

Keywords: true crime, shafiela ahmed, shafilea ahmed, farzana ahmed, iftikhar ahmed, true crime podcast, youtube true crime, serial killers, youtube crime show, true crime community, crime

Id: lj98I_ZpQbM

Length: 98min 15sec (5895 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2024