PC Sharon Beshenivsky: No evidence linking robber to guns, court told

Piran Ditta Khan denies murder and four firearms offences

There is "no evidence" linking the alleged mastermind of an armed robbery to the guns used to shoot two police officers, a trial has been told.

PC Sharon Beshenivsky was fatally shot after interrupting a raid at a travel agents in Bradford in November 2005.

Her colleague, PC Theresa Milburn, was shot in the chest but survived.

Piran Ditta Khan, 75, is on trial at Leeds Crown Court accused of murder and four firearms offences, having previously pleaded guilty to robbery.

Jurors have been told that seven men were involved in carrying out the robbery, with alleged ringleader Mr Khan the last to face trial after he was extradited from Pakistan last year.

Prosecutors have claimed that although Mr Khan was not one of the three armed men who went into the travel agents, and did not leave the safety of a lookout car during the raid, he was still guilty of PC Beshenivsky's murder because of his "pivotal" role in planning the robbery, knowing loaded weapons would be used.

But in his closing speech on Monday, Peter Wright KC, Mr Khan's defence barrister, told the court there was nothing to show his client was linked to the guns used in the raid on the Universal Express travel agents on 18 November 2005.

PC Sharon Beshenivsky was 38 when she was shot dead outside Universal Express in Bradford

Mr Wright reminded jurors of evidence which had been heard from Francois Baron, who was working on renovating a so-called "safe house" in Leeds which was used by the robbers before and after the raid.

He said Mr Baron's evidence was that the firearms had been produced by one of the group before Mr Khan arrived at the house the day before the robbery.

"There is no evidence firearms were ever brandished or produced in Piran Ditta Khan's presence, or at any time after he arrived," Mr Wright said.

"The following day, there is no evidence weapons were visible to anyone prior to their production at Universal Express."

While Mr Khan denies murder, two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon, Mr Wright said his client had admitted he "was involved in a plot to commit robbery".

He "deserves no sympathy for his conduct", Mr Wright added.

'Competing issues'

The court had earlier heard that Mr Khan claimed he was owed £12,000 by the owner of the travel agents, Mohammad Yousaf, which debt collector Hassan Razzaq offered to help him get back after they met through a business associate.

However, Mr Khan told jurors he did not know weapons were to be used and believed the men Razzaq sent would at most "slap" the staff in order to recover the cash.

Mr Wright said there was no evidence Mr Khan was "the man in charge", as prosecutors had claimed.

He told jurors: "The issues in this case are not to be determined by a binary, simple choice between good and evil, or right and wrong, but by a dispassionate and measured analysis of the competing issues."

The trial continues.