A man has been told he must serve at least 25 years in prison for murdering his niece, by a judge who refused to speculate on whether the killing was in response to “some appalling family agreement”.
Repair man Mohammed Taroos Khan, 53, killed Somaiya Begum, 20, in an attack at her home in Binnie Street, Bradford, West Yorkshire, on June 25 last year, before dumping her body on waste ground where it was found decomposed 11 days later. Miss Begum had been living at the property with another of her uncles and her grandmother under the terms of a forced marriage protection order, following attempts by her father, Mohammed Yaseen Khan, to force her to marry a cousin from Pakistan “by threat of violence”, a jury heard.
Sentencing Khan to life in prison at Bradford Crown Court on Wednesday, Mr Justice Garnham said: “It is not possible to identify a motive for this dreadful attack by you on an innocent young woman. It is said you did not support her forced marriage to the cousin in Pakistan.
