The mastermind behind the raid that saw PC Sharon Beshenivsky gunned down to be convicted

The mastermind behind a botched armed robbery which saw a police officer shot will be convicted of her murder.

PC Sharon Beshenivsky was shot dead in the street on her daughter’s fourth birthday while breaking up a raid on Universal Express travel agencies in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in November 2005.

She and her colleague PC Teresa Milburn, who were both unarmed, were shot at point blank range by one of the three men who had just committed the robbery.

After nearly two decades, gang leader Piran Ditta Khan became the last of seven men involved in the robbery to be sentenced in April this year.

The 75-year-old, who was on the run for 15 years before being arrested in Pakistan, was found guilty of murdering Pc Beshenivsky as well as two counts of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon. He pleaded guilty to robbery.

Leeds Crown Court heard that although Khan did not leave the safety of a patrol car throughout the raid, he played a “pivotal” role in planning it and knew loaded weapons would be used.

Prosecutors said this made him guilty of murdering Pc Beshenivsky “as surely as if he had pulled the trigger himself”.

Khan is due to be sentenced by Mr Justice Hilliard on Friday.

During the trial, jurors heard that Khan was the only one in the group who knew Universal Express and had used it in the past to send money to the family.

He flew to Pakistan two months after Pc Beshenivsky’s death and remained at large there until he was arrested by Pakistani authorities in January 2020 and then extradited to the UK last year.

Khan told jurors he did not know a robbery was about to take place or that guns would be taken.

He claimed he was owed £12,000 by the owner of Universal Express and that debt collector Hassan Razzaq, who was later convicted of manslaughter over Pc Beshenivsky’s death, offered to help him recover his money . Prosecutors said there was no evidence of that.

The court heard Pc Beshenivsky’s injury was immediately fatal. PC Milburn, who activated his personal radio and called for help while coughing up blood, survived his injuries after treatment in hospital.