Burnley murder accused accepts spirit did not kill doctor and daughter

Dr Saman Mir Sacharvi and Vian Mangrio's bodies were found at their family home

A man accused of murdering a doctor and her daughter now accepts another person killed them rather than the supernatural spirits he had claimed were responsible, a court has heard.

Shahbaz Khan, 51, told police a 620-year-old "jinn" named Robert had killed Dr Saman Mir Sacharvi, 49, and 14-year-old Vian Mangrio on 30 September 2020.

He told Preston Crown Court he now believed someone entered their Burnley home and killed them.

Mr Khan, of Burnley, denies murder.

It is alleged that the former computer network engineer, of Ribble Avenue, strangled Dr Sacharvi and then attacked her daughter when she returned from school.

He is then alleged to have set fires at the property in Colne Road, Reedley.

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Asking about what had happened at the house, prosecutor David McLachlan QC asked Mr Khan if he accepted the deaths were not caused by jinns, a type of Islamic spirit.

Mr Khan replied he did and that he was now "taking eight to 10 tablets a day, so my brain feels slightly better".

He rejected Mr McLachlan's assertion that he "put something around Dr Sacharvi's neck and... pulled it as tight as you could until she stopped breathing" and that he used Vian's school tie to kill her.

'Obsessed'

Mr Khan said he was "like a family friend" to the pair and that Vian was "like a daughter".

He said he did not know how the pair's mobile phones, which are still missing, ended up being disconnected or why their internet router became inactive on the day of their deaths, adding that neither mother nor daughter had complained to him about the problems while he was there.

Shahbaz Khan was captured on CCTV at the house the day before the bodies were found

The father-of-four was arrested three days after the bodies were discovered by police on the morning of 1 October.

Officers found Dr Sacharvi's jewellery in a loft at Mr Khan's home, which he has claimed she asked him to keep for "security purposes" whenever she left the country, and a mobile phone which contained online searches on the morning of 30 September for "obsessed" and "defined obsessed".

Mr Khan told the court he had not made the searches and that his English was "not good", so he did not know the meaning of the word.

He denies two counts of murder and one count of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

His wife, Rabia Shahbaz, 45, also of Ribble Avenue, denies intending to pervert the course of justice, namely giving him a false alibi.

The trial continues.