Life Sentence for Birthday Murder
A recovery truck driver who murdered his girlfriend by crushing her against a lamppost after she had visited her baby in hospital has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years. Mohammed Azim used his truck as a weapon to kill 19-year-old Lily Whitehouse during an argument on his 41st birthday on November 5 last year. Her tragic death came just months after she gave birth to a premature baby girl who was fathered by another man.
Relationship Began When Victim Was a Teen
The pair first met when Lily was just 16 or 17 years old and Azim saw her in the street, sparking a 'chance encounter,' Detective Inspector Nigel Box told BlackCountryLive. Lily was with her aunt at the time and watched on as the pair chatted and exchanged phone numbers. Det Insp Box added: "Her aunt gave evidence and she was present during their first meeting. It was described as a 'chance encounter' on the street and Azim spoke about this a little bit in his evidence as well. He just walked up to Lily who was 16 or 17 at the time and engaged her in conversation and they exchanged numbers."
Deadly Argument on His Birthday
What followed was an 'on-and-off' relationship between the couple despite their large age gap. Judge Mr Justice Murray said that Lily was 'very needy and dependent' on Azim and on the night she died, she wanted to stay with him but he kicked her out of his truck. He then nudged her with the vehicle before unleashing the fatal blow which pinned her against a lamp post and killed her. Azim then picked up her body and placed her in his vehicle to move her to a second location in a bid to cover his tracks. He initially told police he saw another car hit the young mum before driving away. But police saw through his lies and he was arrested at the scene.
Jury Rejects Accident Claim
Azim later tried to convince a court that he killed Lily by accident, but jurors took less than six hours to find him guilty by a majority of 10 to two of murder on Friday, June 19, after a two-week trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court. Passing sentence on Monday, June 22, Judge Mr Justice Murray said: "Your decision to kill Lily was spontaneous, but you would have been aware she had a five-week-old baby still in hospital. The baby has lost her mother forever at the very beginning of her life. Although Lily was not particularly vulnerable… she was a psychologically vulnerable young woman given her troubled background. She was very needy and dependent on you as you well knew."
Judge Details the Attack
The judge said it was clear from reading messages between the defendant and Ms Whitehouse that the victim was "strongly attached to you and to a degree, volatile and extremely needy." He said: "I am satisfied that while much of the time you were supportive and kind, largely because you wanted to continue a sexual relationship with Lily, you were at times aggressive. It is clear the relationship was very much on your terms, which is not surprising given you were a much older man with more life experience." The trial heard Ms Whitehouse, who had just been to visit her baby in a neonatal intensive care unit, was crushed against a lamppost in Old Park Lane, Oldbury, by Azim's Mercedes Sprinter vehicle, possibly with the driver's door open, causing fatal chest injuries.
Defence and Sentencing
In his evidence during his trial, Azim, of Tividale Road, Tipton, admitted he lied about the hit-and-run because he panicked, and claimed he hit Lily accidentally as he tried to leave after dropping her off near her home. He said Lily did not want to be alone or go home, instead pleading with the defendant to go back to his house despite his refusals because he was tired and had work early the next morning. CCTV from a nearby school that had audio captured the sound of Azim's recovery truck idling just out of view of the camera in Old Park Lane for about 16 minutes before the truck comes into view and Ms Whitehouse is seen walking quickly along the road on the driver's side. The van then appears to forcefully push Ms Whitehouse along the road before a large bang is heard off camera, which the prosecution said was the truck striking the lamp post.
Victim Impact Statements
Azim came to the UK in 2001 from Pakistan, around the age of 14, and went to college and worked in takeaway restaurants to learn English, the trial heard. He was married in 2007 but had been single and living alone since his marriage ended in 2015. His sentencing hearing was told he had previous convictions for possession of cannabis and evasion of duty on tobacco, as well for an offence of battery in 2012. The defendant kept his head down and wiped tears in the dock as Ms Whitehouse's cousin Katie told the court their world "collapsed" when they were told what had happened. She said: "Lily died in tragic and horrific circumstances. We find ourselves asking questions that can never be answered – what were her last thoughts and words when her killer crushed her with his truck? These thoughts haunt us daily."
Ms Whitehouse's aunt, Melissa Wheeler, said in her statement that the pain of losing her niece and best friend was "unbearable." She said: "You were meant to love her, but you killed her. I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing what you did to Lily. I hope you live every day with the guilt of what you did to Lily. What you did was so far from caring. The way you treated her afterwards is just as painful as how you killed her. She had no dignity and no privacy in those moments."
Imran Shafi KC, Azim's defence barrister, said he accepted the case involved the "devastating loss of a young life" and that Ms Whitehouse's daughter would grow up without her mother. He said the offence was "spontaneous" and an intention to harm Ms Whitehouse was formed "very shortly" before the incident. He said: "We say that as the van was driven at a relatively low speed. The act took place in a very public place and the defendant immediately sought help. The intention must have been formed but formed seconds before the act." Mr Shafi accepted that Azim's lies about the incident were "unattractive," adding: "The lies were found out and obviously found out very quickly. He did, within seconds, contact emergency services. The lying was limited to who it was that caused the impact and also in relation to the location of where the incident took place. It had a limited impact on the investigation thereafter."
Azim, who wore a navy suit and a white shirt in the dock and was assisted by a Mirpuri interpreter despite speaking "reasonably good" English, sat with his head in his hands as the judge made his sentencing remarks. Mr Justice Murray said the 227 days Azim has spent on remand would be taken off the minimum term he must serve.
