PC Sharon Beshenivsky murder accused may not stand trial until 2024

PC Sharon Beshenivsky was shot dead while responding to reports of a robbery in Bradford in 2005

A man accused of murdering PC Sharon Beshenivsky 18 years ago may not stand trial until 2024.

Piran Ditta Khan, 74, appeared at the Old Bailey by videolink on Monday for a preliminary hearing.

He was extradited from Pakistan before being charged over the 2005 shooting of the 38-year-old in Bradford.

The court heard there would be a plea hearing in July but that a trial of up to six weeks could not be accommodated at the Old Bailey before January 2024.

The question of whether the case should be moved to a crown court in West Yorkshire, where PC Beshenivsky died, will be settled at a future date.

PC Beshenivsky had been a police officer for only nine months when she was killed in Bradford on 18 November 2005.

Mr Khan is alleged to have played a large part in the organisation of an armed robbery at Universal Travel in Morley Street, which led to PC Beshenivsky's death.

PC Beshenivsky, who had three children and two stepchildren, was shot dead as she and a colleague, PC Teresa Milburn, responded to an alarm at the travel agency.

PC Milburn was also seriously injured but survived.

Police officers in Morley Road, Bradford, after PC Beshenivsky was shot in 2005

Mr Khan is being held at Belmarsh top security jail and appeared before Judge Mark Lucraft KC.

He wore a grey tracksuit and spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth.

Mr Khan is also charged with robbery, two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon.