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00:00This was a cold and calculated murder.
00:16There's always a breaking point in an investigation.
00:24The timeline of events didn't add up.
00:30It was crucial we supported our family contact.
00:35The house was like an inferno.
00:53The flames were going through the roof.
00:57It was completely engulfed.
01:01If I'm being honest, we probably weren't prepared for the enormity of what we had to deal with.
01:09Five sisters perished in the fire.
01:15The saddest thing is when me and Christine went to dress the coffins on behalf of the family.
01:20I'll never forget that.
01:21I first met the Chisty family when three generations of their family had been murdered in their own home.
01:37From that moment on, I became their point of contact in a murder investigation.
01:43My name is Christine Freeman.
01:47I'm a former detective constable with West Yorkshire Police.
01:51I was assigned as a family liaison officer, which is also known as a flow, on what became known as the Birkby Fire Investigation.
01:59In a murder investigation, the rule of flow is absolutely vital.
02:05It's about liaising between the victims, families and the inquiry team and making sure that the victim and the family are kept up to date on the latest developments or any evidence that we come across.
02:21Doing a death warning is the hardest thing ever.
02:24You're dealing with people at the worst possible time of their lives.
02:28They're traumatised.
02:40Shortly after two o'clock, I get a call from force control.
02:44There's a serious house fire.
02:46It doesn't look as though it's accidental and we've got people dead.
02:51I'm Bob Bridstock.
02:52I was a senior investigating officer at West Yorkshire Police, who took charge of the murder investigation into the Chisty family.
02:59I've called Christine.
03:01PHONE RINGS
03:03Hello? Christine Freeman?
03:06Yeah, OK.
03:08House fire?
03:09Crikey.
03:10I'll get to the station as soon as I can.
03:13I was in bed and received a phone call from the deputy SIO at St.
03:20I was telling you that a fatal fire had occurred in the Birdby area of Huddersfield.
03:27The role of a floor is extremely important. It's the first point of contact.
03:30This is the people that are going to be with the family, supporting the family in every which way, right through, hopefully, to the end trial to a person's convicted.
03:40I went into the CID office and I attended a briefing. We were told that the fire was really fierce. There were several children that had not escaped the fire. We don't know who's critically injured or who's actually passed away at this moment in time.
04:01I live probably 15, 20 minutes away from Osborne Road at Birdby at Huddersfield, so I know the area well.
04:12I get to a place called Fixby, and Fixby round about, you're on top of the hill and you're dropping down into Birdby.
04:18I see a glow in the sky. This is like a beacon. You know, like you see on a bonfire night, where the flames are licking up into the skies and it's a massive fire.
04:28And I'm thinking to myself, my God, this is bad. This is really bad.
04:35By the time I arrive at 40 Osborne Road, I see fire officers sat on a garden wall, absolutely shattered. The fire is extinguished and there's water everywhere. It's going to flush away a lot of evidence.
04:50Fire officers are in tears. They are exhausted. Neighbours that have been evacuated are saying, God, this went off. We thought it was a bomb blast.
05:00The whole street was in uproar. Witnesses are telling me, we had a glass break. We heard screaming. We saw faces at the window and they vanished. Horrific. Absolutely horrific. Devastating. Amazingly, people had escaped.
05:19There were one male, had jumped from an upstairs window, which I later found out was Shafiq.
05:26I remember Shafiq with the smoke-blackened face. He's in a lot of pain. He's sort of semi-conscious. He's talking. He doesn't know what's happened, why it's happened.
05:38And my main concern is, let's get you treated. Let's get you off to hospital.
05:42And his mum had come out of the bedroom window but had landed on her head, so she was seriously injured.
05:50Priority is preservation of life and look after the injured.
05:55There was a young woman who had woken before the fire hit the staircase and she managed to get downstairs and lead her dad out of the back door.
06:05She could hear the children screaming from the bedroom upstairs.
06:12My actions were to go to the hospital to speak to the daughter, who we now know is Sadiqa, who had come down the staircase.
06:22She was extremely shocked.
06:24Shafiq was in and out of consciousness and I don't think he really took on board who I was.
06:36After seeing Shafiq, I went back to the office to report back to the SIO, Mr Bridgestock, in charge of the investigation.
06:45I was asked who I'd like to help me as a second family liaison officer to work on the investigation with me.
06:55I asked for John Lee to assist.
06:58I've only finished my family liaison course the Friday night before the Sunday morning that I met up with Christine to become part of the investigation.
07:08I am John Lee, a former detective from West Yorkshire Police.
07:13And I was the family liaison officer that was the Burby House fire.
07:17John and Christine are available.
07:19That's great news for me.
07:21Let's have them there.
07:22Let's get them with the Shafiq family.
07:24I can breathe a sigh of relief and I know I can trust their experience
07:29and they can look after that side of the investigation.
07:32The family lived at number 40.
07:38The main man was Abdulaziz Chister.
07:41He was their granddad.
07:42And he lived at that address with his wife and his children.
07:47And visiting them at that time was his daughter and their grandchildren.
07:52They were all in the house at the time of the attack.
07:55I tell them, just wrap your arms around these people.
07:58They need support and they're going to need that support,
08:01especially when we're going to have to break the news of who's died in this fire.
08:10It was the last day of football season and there were extended highlights on telly.
08:16And my brother, Atik, he was there in my bedroom till quite late.
08:23My name is Mohammed Shafiq and I'm a victim and one of the surviving members of the Chishti family from the Berkeley House fire.
08:34My sister and nieces, they used to wake till late and spend time as much as they could because they didn't have long to go before they went back to Pakistan.
08:46We went to sleep around half twelve, one o'clock.
08:50My mom, she was sleeping in the same bedroom as myself.
08:53She heard some noises and that was from the breaking of the glass.
09:00And there was smoke in the bedroom.
09:05I could see some flames from the floorboards.
09:09As I opened the bedroom door, there were flames outside.
09:15So we ran towards the bedroom window, opened the window.
09:21I jumped from the window.
09:24My mom, she was in her fifties and had severe back problems.
09:30She couldn't jump properly.
09:32She fell on some concrete slabs and had brain hemorrhage from the fall.
09:39The house was like an inferno.
09:42The flames were going through the roof.
09:46It was completely engulfed.
09:48My younger brother, he was trying to break the glass of his bedroom.
09:55We saw him falling from the window to the floor.
10:01My sister and nieces, they were in the bedroom behind.
10:07And we don't know what happened in that room.
10:13We were helpless.
10:14We couldn't do anything.
10:16I was in excruciating pain.
10:19And it was, I was in my night clothes in the vest.
10:24And my arms were bare and some of my skin from my arm and my hand came off.
10:38And there was a breeze blowing and it was making my pain so, so bad that I was struggling to stand.
10:47My name is Craig Briggs.
10:57I was officer in the case on the murder of eight members of the Chisti family.
11:02I was tasked with conducting an interview with Abdul Majid, one of the sons of the family.
11:11My other younger brother, Abdul Majid, and on that night he was in the other house that we had across the road.
11:23And he was woken up by shattering of the front room window.
11:30He was an eyewitness to tragic unfolding events.
11:33He could hear the screaming from, from where he was.
11:37And when he got outside the house, he was just broken.
11:41And then we took him back to the other home, but he was looked after.
11:46And family liaison officers looked after his welfare as well.
11:52When Majid replayed the incident, he said that he saw three, possibly four Asian males in the front garden.
12:01And they were putting petrol bombs through the front window.
12:05These perpetrators, they, they had set the house on fire and they were running down the road,
12:14as he was running across the road from the other house.
12:20As the morning wears on, we find out that the downstairs lounge windows have actually been broken.
12:27Within the debris, we can see glass. We also see metal nuts.
12:32And we're thinking, pfft, somebody's done a lot of planning here.
12:36The door's also had petrol poured through it.
12:39That has perished.
12:41So there's a vast amount of fuel being used.
12:44I've dealt with fires before.
12:46More or less like, we see when you've seen a gas explosion.
12:49I've never seen such devastation.
12:51It was a difficult task for the crime scene management.
12:56The next phase is going to be trying to remove the bodies from the house.
13:03We're satisfied that those inside would not survive.
13:06They've got a shell of the house.
13:08You can still smell petrol in the air.
13:10The actual process of recovering the deceased from the property was going to take some time,
13:18because it had to be done under sort of scientific circumstances to try and preserve evidence.
13:27Inside the house, as it starts to cool down, there is no staircase.
13:32We're not going to go walking across the floor, because structurally, is it safe?
13:37As the hours progress and daylight comes, we can get up the stairs to the ladder with our coverall suits on and be told where the bodies are.
13:46It's about removing those bodies carefully, with dignity.
13:51We have a tent outside, and bodies will be brought out independently into the tent first before they are taken away by ambulance to the safety of the mortuary.
14:05In my opinion, there was no way that we could subject the survivors to the ordeal of identifying the deceased.
14:17They were so badly burnt.
14:20The autopsies give you the severity of the deaths, the reason for the death, what caused the death.
14:27You have to have a cause of death at the court. How did these people die?
14:31And they were either burnt or asphyxiated.
14:34In this circumstance, they also used the dental records from comparing them to 100%,
14:41to clarify their identification of the victims.
14:44People that died in the house, unfortunately, was his daughter, his son, and five grandchildren.
14:51This is just his wife who jumped out the window and unfortunately died later in the hospital.
14:56The victims were Zaid Anissa, who was 54, and Atik Rahman, who was 18 years old.
15:03Nafisa Aziz, who was 35.
15:06Tayaba Batool was 13 years old.
15:09Rabiba Batool was 10 years old.
15:12Atika Nawaz was five years old.
15:15Anissa Nawaz, who was two years old.
15:18And Najiba Nawaz, who was only two months old.
15:21Shafiq, who jumped out the window, was burnt.
15:24And Mrs Shisti and Sadiqa, who left the house out the back, they were mentally scarred for the rest of their life.
15:31I was tasked to inform them that eight members of the family had been killed in a fatal house fire.
15:42Doing a death warning is the hardest thing ever.
15:45I try to think how I would like to be given such terrible, sad news.
15:52It's a case of taking your time and preparing them for it, saying, you know, the news is not good.
16:01I was still in a denial.
16:04But John and Christine, they told us in a very sensitive way.
16:11It's probably one of the hardest things I've done in 30 years' police work.
16:17Telling people that members of the family have been killed.
16:23There's no training, no way of doing that at all.
16:25You've just got to be open and honest and give them the facts.
16:29You don't hold anything back.
16:30But try to present it in the best way you can possible.
16:38There was a lot of investigation work still being conducted at the scene.
16:43Search has been conducted. Forensic samples being obtained.
16:48Glass milk bottles were used, filled with fuel, and then nuts and bolts put in.
16:54There's a couple of reasons for the nuts and bolts.
16:57The first is kinetic energy.
16:59When it goes through a double glazed window, it will smash the window.
17:03But also the fuel will sit around the rim inside the nut and it will spread the fire.
17:11So when they were thrown through, the fire sort of spread through that living room.
17:17They just put the nuts in and then filled them with fuel and then they had a rag at the top.
17:22Basically homemade Molotov cocktails that they threw through the bare window of the house.
17:28A petrol canister was located probably about, I'd say about 200 metres from the address down an alleyway.
17:37And I'm thinking to myself, thank you God. Let this be, you know, is it connected? Is it going to help me?
17:43We wanted to identify the fuel in the petrol canister to see if we could identify it as the same from the address that had been attacked.
17:53Having worked with Accelerance over a number of years, certain petrol companies and retailers put additives into fuel and the number of additives or the different types of additives can give what in essence is almost like a fingerprinting fuel.
18:12We were able to say that additives have been put into the fuel at the scene and the similar additives are in the petrol canister.
18:22Though there was a lot of work to do in order to establish that, that's basically how we were able to say that that fuel had a link with the scene.
18:33There was a lot of work in relation to motor vehicles and obtaining petrol samples from petrol stations around sort of the Birkby area.
18:43We were trying to secure where the fuel was had been obtained.
18:48We were trying to secure where the fuel was had been obtained.
18:52We were trying to secure where the fuel was had been obtained.
18:54We were trying to secure where the fuel was had been obtained.
18:56My childhood wasn't spent in Huddersfield, it was in Pakistan.
19:00I came here at the age of 16 and after that I spent all my life in Huddersfield.
19:08We lived in an area where there were other families from Pakistan and we got on well with each other as well as our English neighbours.
19:17The house where we lived was a standard three bedroom terrace house where my family, my mum, dad and three of my other siblings, we lived in that house.
19:31My mother, she mainly stayed in the house and looked after us.
19:37She did all the house things.
19:39She was a very good cook and not many people make Indian tea that my mother did and I miss, I miss that.
19:53My brother, he enjoyed life and he was a big fan of Manchester United.
19:58He regularly played football with his friends.
20:02They were good friends and he spent a lot of time with them.
20:06My older sister, Nafisa, she was very caring.
20:09When we came in this country, my sister, she was already married and had children.
20:15She couldn't come.
20:16She stayed in Pakistan with her children and her husband and she missed us very much.
20:25She came to visit us.
20:27She had five daughters and they were all lovely.
20:31I was very close to all of them.
20:33The sad thing is, I think Nafisa and the five children, days later, were due to return to Pakistan.
20:39They'd stayed longer.
20:41So if Mr. Chisty could spend time with his granddaughters.
20:46The Chisty family were law abiding, good people who took the religion seriously,
20:54who wanted to help the community in whatever way they could.
20:59It made it harder to do the investigation because why would somebody want to hurt such lovely people?
21:06You're probably always looking for a motive.
21:09Always looking for a reason why something's happened.
21:12The more work that we did, we identified where that link probably was.
21:22That morning I make an appeal at the bottom of the street.
21:25I'm appealing for witnesses, evidence for them to come forward.
21:28Anybody with any information to come forward.
21:31And what we do know from enquiries, from witnesses, there was a car prior to this,
21:37in the early hours, driving up and down Osborne Road.
21:40They were wrecking the place, waiting until people went to bed,
21:43waiting until the lights went out.
21:45So they knew the house was occupied.
21:48We're getting to find out this is a really planned evil attack on the Chisty family.
21:55The investigation process continued at all times.
21:59Whilst we were family as an officer, we were getting as much information as we could from the family.
22:04Shafiq told us about a young man had visited the house, wanted to speak to Atik.
22:10And failed threats were made.
22:17He looked angry.
22:22He used the words, you don't know what kind of people we are threatening.
22:27I called Atik downstairs.
22:30I said, someone is here asking for you.
22:32Do you know this person?
22:34And Atik, he said, no, I don't know anything about that.
22:38The fact that the young man was driving a black BMW, which was left-hand drive,
22:45certainly helped in his identification.
22:48The person who visited the Chisty family home was a young man called Shahid Mohammed.
22:55I'd had dealings with Shahid Mohammed previously.
22:58You could tell he thought a lot of himself.
23:01So we're making headways into this investigation because these people need catching and quickly.
23:12I get two sets of fingerprints on that petrol can.
23:15One is a lad called Nasir Hussein and the other is Shaquille Shahzad.
23:20Both mid-twenties.
23:22And we get information about a pair of surgical gloves that have been dumped about a mile from the scene.
23:29And on the gloves, Nasir Hussein's fingerprints are on those.
23:34We had CCTV from McDonald's.
23:37The next day, we know that they went there and they were talking about what they'd done.
23:42The investigation team at that early stage identified offenders.
23:47We start doing raids on houses.
23:49And certain people were arrested.
23:51The main suspects in this were Shahid Mohammed, Shahid Iqbal, Shaquille Shahzad and Nasir Hussein.
24:00So we've got 36 hours with the people we've got in custody.
24:04Between the 35th and the 36th hour, we can go to Magistrates Court
24:10and apply for a third up to a third of 72 hours.
24:15We're not releasing these, we know they're involved.
24:18Eight people have been murdered and we get in a silence.
24:22From those arrested, it's no reply.
24:25You know, they don't want to know.
24:27I was involved in interviews and involved in the interview with Shahid Mohammed.
24:33Shahid Mohammed's demeanour, calm and arrogant.
24:37He made no comment to all the questions in the interviews.
24:42And as a result of this occasion, they didn't meet the threshold for a charge.
24:48One is granted bail, Shahid Mohammed.
24:51Sadly, about an hour later, we are ready to connect him to the crimes.
24:57We were starting to look at the petrol evidence.
25:03From his home address, we recovered some footwear that smelled strongly of accelerants.
25:10And it matches petrol at the scene.
25:13Shahid Mohammed couldn't be found, couldn't be located.
25:17Inquiries were conducted throughout the UK and the belief was that he'd got a flight out of the country.
25:24He's on the run and he's gone.
25:31The funeral was held on the 6th of July, 2002, at Huddersfield Town Football Stadium.
25:41There was a crowd of thousands.
25:44There was an awful lot of police officers attended, fire brigade, who had all been all badly affected by this tragedy.
25:53This was a crime against the community.
25:56By the time it came to organising the funeral, the family were still emotionally affected, traumatised.
26:04Trying to think straight when you're under such great trauma is difficult.
26:09John and I took it upon ourselves to try and help with the organisation of the funeral.
26:16From where the family live, you can see Huddersfield Town Football Ground.
26:19And at that time, I had big contacts with the football grounders.
26:22One of my boys played football there.
26:24I contacted Huddersfield Town and asked them if it would be possible that we could hold a service for the family at the football ground.
26:32And that would give us the opportunity for many people to attend.
26:35They were fantastic and agreed to the whole process.
26:38The co-op funeral care were absolutely amazing.
26:42They provided eight separate hearses with a funeral director assigned to each body.
26:48There was eight coffins from little babies all the way up to adults.
26:57Me and my colleague Christine had to go, on behalf of the family, to the funeral home
27:01and leave flowers and notes and pillows for each member of the family that have died.
27:07Me and Christine held our brave faces while we were doing it.
27:10And then, at the end of that, we went and then sat back in the CID car and me and Christine both burst into tears.
27:17And talk things through because we were support for each other.
27:24And I think that it's vitally important that you work in pairs so that you've got that support.
27:33It was a good feeling that people cared about what happened and they were there for us.
27:42I'm looking for why has this house been targeted.
27:53Shafiq's younger brother, Atik Raymond, is 18.
27:57He goes to the same college as a lad called Saud, who was going out with a girl called Shahida.
28:03There was no real link between the Chisti family and the attackers.
28:10But what there was, Atik was friends with a young man called Saud Pervez.
28:16Saud was going out with Shahid Mohammed's sister.
28:21Shahid Mohammed's family didn't approve of it because they were young.
28:28I think she was 17 at the time and he was 18.
28:34They wanted her to have more education too early for her to be in a relationship and to get married.
28:46Also, they were different cast. Possibly that was another factor.
28:53Saud and Shahida, going back to October 2001, had fled up to Newcastle.
29:01Her brother didn't like this, so him and his friends, Shahid Mohammed, Shahid Iqbal, his gang, if you like, if you want to call them that, go up to Newcastle, drag them back.
29:12And when I say drag them back, they kidnap him.
29:16Saud gets a beating, he gets pistol whipped, he gets threatened with death.
29:20And they warn him, stay away from my sister.
29:23In December, the couple have fled again up there and it happens again.
29:29Newcastle police are looking at this team for kidnap and assault.
29:34Atik knows about this. Newcastle police look to Atik because he knows about it and want him to be a witness.
29:43Atik does not want to be involved in any way, shape or form.
29:48Shahid Iqbal and Shahid Mohammed had already assaulted Atik.
29:53We're finding out that Atik was the target.
29:56He didn't want to be involved. They warned her that they would kill him.
30:00And of course, a few days later they do.
30:07Through the Newcastle inquiry, through the people that were now talking, through the family,
30:12we got to know all the mobile phone numbers and the gang.
30:16Through cell site analysis, we do some tremendous work and it shows us all the phones,
30:26all those involved on the night and then into the early hours parking up on St John's Road.
30:33This gives the intelligence we need.
30:36We know who's done it. We know where they were.
30:38We know what they said afterwards. We know where they've text.
30:41After they've petrol bombed the house and poured fuel through the letterbox,
30:45three cars have gone off in different directions.
30:47Through the intelligence work, we are able to show where the three cars went,
30:53what routes they took, and then they all meet up in a place in Bradford,
30:58what was it like a security office works.
31:02We searched that area and we recovered burnt clothing.
31:06They've been advised, get rid of all your clothing, get rid of your phones,
31:10you don't want any connection to this.
31:12So everything's come together.
31:15We get sufficient evidence to go to the Crown Prosecution Service.
31:19We charge Shaheed Iqbal with eight counts of murder.
31:22We charge him with conspiracy to commit damage or endanger life by arson.
31:27And Naseem Hussain and Shaheed Shaqeel Shahzad,
31:32we charge with manslaughter and relevant offences.
31:36Again, the conspiracy to commit arson and cause damage.
31:40I remember Shaheed Mohammed had skipped bail,
31:43leaving other people to get convicted for offences that he was involved in.
31:48The trial started in July 2003.
32:05At home, after the incident and also when the trial happened,
32:10John and Christine, they were great help.
32:13The trial is one of the most traumatic parts for the victim's family,
32:18especially in this case because every member of the family were witnesses.
32:25What that means is that none of them can go sit in court until they're given their evidence.
32:32In order to prepare the family for trial, we took them on a pre-court visit
32:36so they could look at the courtroom, have it explained to them where they would be given evidence
32:41so that they weren't going into the unknown.
32:45And explain the whole procedure to them.
32:47And that makes it feel a little bit easier when you get there.
32:50I told them that the defence might ask a question you're not happy with
32:53but just stick to your honest story at all times.
32:56But also, we prepared them in other ways in that you don't always get a guilty verdict
33:03to talk them through how we would deal with that.
33:12I'm out with them every bit of the day.
33:15During the trial, I remember me and Christine picking them up in a big transit van
33:20and transporting them to court every day.
33:22They're actually brilliant.
33:24Between myself and John, one of us would always be with both parts of the family,
33:29the one that had given their evidence and the one that were waiting to give their evidence.
33:35As far as the family as a rule goes, you're not just dipping in and out, you're there at all times.
33:40It's never easy for witnesses and family of the deceased to sit, give evidence and look at the suspects.
33:50They stuck to the facts and they were able to stand up there
33:54and face the people that had done these awful things to them.
33:59When the jury went out to deliberate, we all went bound to the family room.
34:03It's such a nail-biting situation when you're waiting for the jury to come back.
34:08That was one of the worst times ever, waiting for the jury to come back with a verdict.
34:13Feeling nervous, wondering what's taking so long.
34:17The suspects were all found guilty of various charges.
34:24On the 30th of July 2003, Shaquille Shahzad and Nazar Hussain were convicted of manslaughter of the eight members of the Chishti family.
34:38And they were sentenced to 18 years in prison.
34:41The third offender got conviction for murder for 23 years.
34:54These individuals, most of the offenders, they are behind bars.
34:59However, it wouldn't bring our family members back.
35:04The initial trial was concluded and everybody was sent to prison.
35:11But it wasn't over for the family.
35:13The investigation was trying to trace Shaid Muhammad.
35:18This took a long, long time.
35:24In 2011, I actually retired as a police officer.
35:28I had retired in 2013, but we kept in touch.
35:33The search for Shaid Muhammad was still ongoing.
35:36And I was still in contact with the family.
35:37We kept, kept contact at all time.
35:42Shaid Muhammad was still outstanding.
35:44There was anecdotal intelligence as to where he could be.
35:47But the process of trying to identify where he was, was proving very difficult.
35:52I'm Lisa Griffin, and I was the Detective Superintendent SIO leading the next Chishti family murder investigation.
36:09And I joined the homicide and major inquiry team in 2010.
36:14That was my first encounter with the investigation.
36:19My investigation team included a number of officers who had worked on the Berkeley House fire from the initial stages.
36:26The conclusive evidence that Shaid Muhammad was involved in the fire came with the forensic examination.
36:33Accelerants were found on his footwear.
36:36But that information was not available to the investigating team while he was in police custody.
36:41Those results came back later after he'd been released on police bail.
36:56In 2013, and we were going to approach the 10th anniversary.
36:59And it seemed an appropriate time to do an appeal to the public.
37:05I held a press conference with the family.
37:08I invited in the media, and we covered it as widely as we possibly could to make an appeal to the public.
37:14We did get several calls from the public.
37:17We informed that he had fled the country and that he was in Pakistan.
37:21We established that he was in Jellum City.
37:28We wanted him to be extradited to the UK so that he would face trial in a British court of law
37:34and be sentenced in accordance with UK law.
37:38We worked closely with my counterpart, an SIO within Pakistan.
37:43Only a limited number of my investigation team were aware that we were deploying to Pakistan.
37:50We didn't want any risk of the offender being alerted to our presence within Pakistan
37:55and of the arrest inquiries being undertaken.
37:59We had to be really careful as well making contact with the Chisti family
38:05because we were conscious that the Muslim community is a really tight community.
38:11They go to mosque and, you know, they discuss things.
38:15They were sworn to secrecy. It was very important that they kept things tight within the family.
38:26The team I sent to Pakistan were the core elements of my investigation team,
38:31and they were trustworthy and reliable.
38:34We're clear in our objective that we need to secure evidence to support the arrest of Shaheen Mahmood.
38:42In October 2015, my colleague identified a property in Jellum City.
38:49He sent that back to me.
38:51I looked at a photograph of a number of males on a balcony
38:56and identified one of those individuals as Shaheen Mahmood.
39:01Once the sighting was confirmed, we wanted to effect the arrest without any delay.
39:05This was quite a time of worry and concern
39:09because it was probably going to be the only opportunity we had.
39:13The arrest was rapid. The officers were able to gain entry to the premise
39:23and Shaheen Mahmood was caught very much off-guard
39:27and very much surprised by their presence.
39:30It was a moment of sheer joy and relief because we'd worked hard for that.
39:37I'd often thought about how I would react at that moment,
39:42and the reality was, it sounds a bit dramatic,
39:45but I just went and sat alone
39:49because I knew I would have to break the news to Shafiq and his family
39:53that we'd finally secured the arrest of Shaheen Mahmood.
39:56After 13 years of trying, we finally got him in custody.
40:05Sadly, Mr. Chisty had passed away, so he never would find out
40:08that Shaheen Mahmood had been arrested.
40:11DC Craig Briggs went to see the family,
40:15and he gave the news to Shafiq.
40:18And in a little twist of fate, Shafiq actually rang the family liaison officer,
40:24which is usually the opposite way around.
40:27So Shafiq told him the news that Shaheen Mahmood had been arrested.
40:31I was filling up for him. I was so pleased.
40:34The family were immensely grateful for the outcome.
40:39We never gave up.
40:44Police never gave up.
40:47They continued with their investigation,
40:53and finally they brought him over.
40:56They put their wholehearted trust in us,
40:58and in return, we were able to celebrate the success of the outcome with them.
41:03And from that point onwards, the role again commenced,
41:09and back with the job.
41:10Usually the investigations last between, I don't know, six to 12 months.
41:15The Birkby House fire ones lasted, for me, 23 years.
41:19We started the same procedure again, took them to the ground court.
41:30They were pleased to be there to give evidence at court,
41:34and they were pleased that at last they could at least say goodbye to the investigation.
41:40They were good that after 17 years, the same people were all there.
41:45We were all there together.
41:47DC Briggs was called to go into court,
41:49so it was nice for everybody who was involved in the initial investigation
41:53to be there and back for the family.
41:55I was called to give evidence at the trial of Shaheed Mohammed.
41:59It was quite satisfying to see him facing justice finally.
42:04It was hard to remember everything that you'd done 17 years previously,
42:10but I felt a great duty to the Chisty family to make sure that I got it right,
42:19to make sure that this man wasn't going anywhere other than to prison.
42:25The jury went out to deliberate, and we were all sat with the family thinking,
42:34come on, because the quicker the jury are back, the better.
42:39We were all waiting for the conviction.
42:41It was electric.
42:49When they give that result of guilty, it was fantastic.
42:53I was so pleased for the family.
42:55That was great when the jury read that out.
42:57I remember just feeling very emotional,
43:01thinking or realising this is the end of a long, long road.
43:08The judge gave his sentencing.
43:11It was 23 years for the murder of eight people.
43:16He could only sentence on the guidelines that were in place in 2002, 2003.
43:22The unduly lenient sentence was increased from 23 years to 27 years.
43:31I don't think Shaheed Mohammed had any change in his demeanour
43:34when he was sentenced for the murder of eight people.
43:37No reaction.
43:39I still can't comprehend that this happened to our family,
43:55over trivial things which were between two other individuals or families.
44:00And whenever I miss my parents, my siblings, I turn to my children, my wife,
44:12and that takes my mind away.
44:20Good day.
44:21Bless you.
44:22Lovely to see you.
44:23Good to see you too.
44:25Do you well, buddy?
44:26Shafiq, the first time I met you was when we came to see you in hospital
44:34when you were in Manchester.
44:36I don't even think you were probably aware that we were there.
44:39No.
44:40No.
44:41But, sir, you were in a bad way.
44:44I was, I think, unconscious most of the time.
44:48Eight people lost their lives in this horrendous, unnecessary and evil attack.
44:53You've been incredible, Shafiq.
44:54And that was very tough.
44:55I know.
44:56I was done when I spoke to people there.
44:58It's never going to be easy.
44:59Never will be that you've been incredible all the way through.
45:03Dealing with such a horrific investigation is hard for anybody.
45:08Look at how far you've come, though.
45:10Look at, you know, you've got, you know, babies.
45:14Babies that are not so big.
45:16And that's what keeps me going.
45:18Yeah.
45:19The family, a new family.
45:21And children.
45:23Yeah.
45:24Yeah.
45:25In this case, because it was such a horrific offence,
45:28and because the investigation lasted for nearly 20 years,
45:34you tend to live the investigation.
45:38Being a family liaison officer is one of the best jobs ever in the police
45:44because you are in such a privileged position
45:47to get to know people at the worst
45:50and hopefully to see them come out.
45:53The other end, on the road to recovery,
45:56and learning to live with a new form of normal.
46:02I can't thank you enough.
46:03Without that help and support, we would have struggled.
46:10And the Chisties are very, very special.
46:13And they'll always be special to me.
46:15I was special tonight.
46:16You're special tonight.
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