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00:08This 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.
00:32It was crucial we supported our family contact.
00:51The house was like an inferno.
00:54The 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.
01:14The saddest thing is when me and Christine went to dress the coffins on behalf of the family.
01:20I'll never forget that.
01:29I first met the Chisty family when three generations of their family had been murdered in their own home.
01:38From that moment on, I became their point of contact in a murder investigation.
01:45My name is Christine Freeman.
01:47I'm a former detective constable with West Yorkshire Police.
01:50I was assigned as a family liaison officer, which is also known as a flow, on what became known as
01:56the 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
02:14are 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.
02:48And 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
02:58family.
02:59I've called Christine.
03:01PHONE RINGS
03:04Hello? 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 saying that, you know, a fatal fire
03:22had occurred in the Birkby area of Huddersfield.
03:27The role of a floor is extremely important.
03:29It'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
03:35through, hopefully, to the end trial to a person's convicted.
03:39I went into the CID office and I attended a briefing. We were told that the fire was really fierce.
03:47There were several children that had not escaped the fire.
03:51We don't know who's critically injured or who's actually passed away at this moment in time.
04:05I live probably 15, 20 minutes away from Osborne Road at Birkby 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
04:17down into Birkby.
04:18I see a glow in the sky. This is like a beacon. You know, like you see on a bonfire
04:23night, 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 Forty-Holtz-Borne Road, I see fire officers sat on a garden wall, absolutely
04:43shattered.
04:45The fire is extinguished and there's water everywhere. It's going to flush away a lot of evidence.
04:50Fire officers drink tears. They are exhausted.
04:55Neighbours that have been evacuated are saying, God, this went off. We thought it was a bomb blast.
05:01The whole street was in uproar.
05:04Witnesses are telling me, we had a glass break. We were screaming. We saw faces at the window.
05:10And they vanished. Horrific. Absolutely horrific. Devastating.
05:17Amazingly, people had escaped.
05:18There 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
05:35talking. 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.
05:44And his mum had come out of the bedroom window but had landed on her head so she was seriously
05:50injured.
05:51Priority is preservation of life and look after the injured.
05:56There was a young woman had woken before the fire hit the staircase and she managed to get downstairs and
06:03lead her dad out of the back door.
06:06She could hear the children screaming from the bedroom upstairs.
06:13My actions were to go to the hospital to speak to the daughter, who we now know is Sadiqa, who
06:20had come down the staircase.
06:22She was extremely shocked.
06:26Shafiq 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
06:44the investigation.
06:45I was asked who I'd like to help me as a second family liaison officer to work on the investigation
06:55with me.
06:56I asked for John Lee to assist.
06:59I've only finished my family liaison course the Friday night before the Sunday morning that I met up with Christine
07:06to become part of the investigation.
07:10I am John Lee, a former detective from West Yorkshire Police, and I was the family liaison officer for the
07:16Birby House fire.
07:18John and Christine are available. That's great news for me. Let's have them there. Let's get them with the Chistock
07:24family.
07:25I can breathe a sigh of relief and I know I can trust their experience and they can look after
07:31that side of the investigation.
07:35The family lived at number 40. The main man was Abdul Aziz Chistock. He was their granddad.
07:43And he lived at that address with his wife and his children.
07:47And visiting them at that time was his daughter and their grandchildren.
07:53They 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, especially when we're going to have to break the news
08:02of 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
08:31the Birby House fire.
08:34My sister and nieces, they used to wake till late and spend time as much as they could because they
08:42didn't have long to go before they went back to Pakistan.
08:46We went to sleep around half twelve, one o'clock. My mom, she was sleeping in the same bedroom as
08:53myself.
08:55She heard some noises and that was from the breaking of the glass.
09:00And there was smoke in the bedroom.
09:06I 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.
09:40The house was like an inferno.
09:42The flames were going through the roof.
09:46It was completely engulfed.
09:49My younger brother, he was trying to break the glass of his bedroom.
09:55We saw him falling from the window to the floor.
10:02My sister and nieces, they were in the bedroom behind.
10:08And we don't know what happened in that room.
10:13We were helpless. We couldn't do anything.
10:17I was in excruciating pain.
10:19And it was, I was in my nightclothes in the inner vest.
10:27And 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
10:47stand.
10:54My name is Craig Briggs.
10:56I 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 Majeed, one of the sons of the family.
11:11My other younger brother, Abdul Majeed, and on that night he was in the other house that we had across
11:22the road.
11:23And he was woken up by shattering of the front room window.
11:29He 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.
11:40And 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.
11:51When Majeed replayed the incident, he said that he saw three, possibly four Asian males in the front garden.
12:00And they were putting petrol bombs through the front window.
12:06These perpetrators, they, they had set the house on fire and they were running down the road as he was
12:14running 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.
12:35The door's also had petrol poured through it.
12:39That has perished. So there's a vast amount of fuel being used.
12:43I've dealt with fires before.
12:45More or less like, we see when you've seen a gas explosion.
12:48I've never seen such devastation.
12:51It was a difficult task for the crime scene management.
12:58The 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. You 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 scientific circumstances to try and preserve evidence.
13:27Inside the house, as it starts to cool down, there is no staircase.
13:31We're not going to go walking across the floor because structurally, is it safe?
13:36As the hours progress and daylight comes, we can get up the stairs to the ladder with our coverall suits
13:43on and be told where the bodies are.
13:45It's about removing those bodies carefully, with dignity, with a tent outside and bodies will be brought out independently into
13:56the tent first before they are taken away by ambulance to the safety of the mortuary.
14:03In my opinion, there was no way that we could subject the survivors to the ordeal of identifying the deceased.
14:16They were so badly burnt.
14:19The 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 for the court. How did these people die? And they were either
14:31burnt or asphyxiated.
14:33And on this circumstance, they also used the dental records from comparing them to 100% to clarify their identification
14:41of the victims.
14:43People 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.
14:55The 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 5 years old.
15:15Anissa Nawaz, who was 2 years old.
15:18And Najiba Nawaz, who was only 2 months old.
15:22Shafiq, who jumped out the window, was burnt.
15:24And Mr Shisti and Sadiqa, who left the house out the back, they were mentally scarred for the rest of
15:31their life.
15:33I was tasked to inform them that 8 members of the family had been killed in a fatal house fire.
15:41Doing a death warning is the hardest thing ever.
15:44I tried to think how I would like to be given such terrible, sad news.
15:51It's a case of taking your time and preparing them for it, saying, you know, the news is not good.
16:00I was still in a denial.
16:03But John and Christine, they told us in a very sensitive way.
16:10It'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.
16:22There'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.
16:28You don't hold anything back.
16:30But try to present it in the best way you can possible.
16:37There was a lot of investigation work still being conducted at the scene.
16:42Search has been conducted.
16:45Forensic samples being obtained.
16:47Glass milk bottles were used, filled with fuel.
16:51And 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.
17:08And 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
17:21top.
17:21Basically 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.
17:40Let 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 as the same from
17:50the address that had been attacked.
17:52Having worked with Accelerance over a number of years, certain petrol companies and retailers put additives into fuel.
18:04And the number of additives or the different types of additives can give what in essence is almost like a
18:10fingerprinting fuel.
18:12We were able to say that additives have been put into the fuel at the scene.
18:17And the similar additives are in the petrol canister, though there was a lot of work to do in order
18:24to establish that.
18:26That'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
18:41of the Birkby area.
18:42We were trying to secure where the fuel was had been obtained.
18:54My childhood wasn't spent in Huddersfield. It was in Pakistan. I came here at the age of 16.
19:01And after that, I've spent all my life in Huddersfield.
19:07We lived in an area where there were other families from Pakistan, and we got on well with each other
19:13as well as our English neighbors.
19:16The house where we lived was a standard three-bedroom terrace house where my family, my mom, dad, and three
19:27of my other siblings, we lived in that house.
19:30My mother, she mainly stayed in the house and looked after us. She did all the house things. She was
19:38a very good cook, and not many people make Indian tea that my mother did, and I miss that.
19:51My brother, Atik, he enjoyed life, and he was a big fan of Manchester United. He regularly played football with
20:00his friends.
20:01They were good friends, and he spent a lot of time with them. My older sister, Nafisa, she was very
20:07caring.
20:08When we came in this country, my sister, she was already married and had children. She couldn't come.
20:15She stayed in Pakistan with her children and her husband, and she missed us very much. She came to visit
20:24us.
20:25She had five daughters, and they were all lovely. I was very close to all of them.
20:31The sad thing is, I think Nafisa and her five children, days later, were due to return to Pakistan. They'd
20:39stayed longer.
20:40So, Amitra Chisty could spend time with his granddaughters.
20:44The Chisty family were law-abiding, good people who took the religion seriously, who wanted to help the community in
20:56whatever way they could.
20:57It made it harder to do the investigation, because why would somebody want to hurt such lovely people?
21:04You're probably always looking for a motive, always looking for a reason why something's happened.
21:10The more work that we did, we identified where that link probably was.
21:20That morning, I make an appeal at the bottom of the street.
21:23I'm appealing for witnesses, evidence, for them to come forward.
21:27Anybody with any information, to come forward.
21:29And what we do know from enquiries, from witnesses, there was a car prior to this, in the early hours,
21:37driving up and down Osborne Road.
21:38They were wrecking the place, waiting until people went to bed, waiting until the lights went out.
21:44So they knew the house was occupied.
21:46We're getting to find out this is a really planned evil attack on the Chisty family.
21:54The investigation process continued at all times.
21:58Whilst we were family as an officer, we were getting as much information as we could from the family.
22:03Shafiq told us about a young man had visited the house, wanted to speak to Atik.
22:09And veiled threats were made.
22:16He looked angry.
22:20He used the words, you don't know what kind of people we are threatening.
22:25I called Atik downstairs.
22:29I said, someone is here asking for you.
22:31Do you know this person?
22:33And 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, certainly helped in his
22:45identification.
22:46The person who visited the Chisty family home was a young man called Shaheed Mohammed.
22:54I'd had dealings with Shaheed Mohammed previously.
22:57You could tell he thought a lot of himself.
23:04So we're making headways into this investigation, because these people need catching, and quickly.
23:10I get two sets of fingerprints on that petrol can.
23:13One is a light called Nasir Hussain, and the other is Shaquille Shahzad.
23:19Both mid-twenties.
23:20And we get information about a pair of surgical gloves that have been dumped about a mile from the scene.
23:27And on the gloves, Nasir is saying, fingerprints are on those.
23:32We had CCTV from McDonald's.
23:36The next day, we know that they weren't there, and they were talking about what they'd done.
23:41But the investigation team, at that early stage, identified offenders.
23:45We start doing raids on houses.
23:48And certain people were arrested.
23:49The main suspects in this were Shaheed Mohammed, Shaheed Iqbal, Shaquille Shahzad, and Nasir Hussain.
23:59So we've got 36 hours with the people we've got in custody.
24:03Between the 35th and the 36th hour, we can go to Magistrates' Court and apply for a third up to
24:11a third of 72 hours.
24:14We're not releasing these, we know they're involved.
24:17Eight people have been murdered, and we get in a silence.
24:21From those arrested, it's no reply.
24:24You know, they don't want to know.
24:27I was involved in interviews and involved in the interview with Shaheed Mohammed.
24:33Shaheed Mohammed's demeanour, calm and arrogant.
24:37He made no comment to all the questions in the interviews.
24:41And as a result of this occasion, they didn't meet the threshold for a charge.
24:47One is granted bail.
24:49Shaheed Mohammed.
24:51Sadly, about an hour later, we have had to connect him to the crimes.
24:58We were starting to look at the petrol evidence.
25:02From his home address, we recovered some footwear that smelled strongly of accelerants.
25:08And it matches petrol at the scene.
25:13Shaheed Mohammed couldn't be found, couldn't be located.
25:15Inquiries were conducted throughout the UK, and the belief was that he'd got a flight out of the country.
25:23He's on the run, and he's gone.
25:29The funeral was held on the 6th of July, 2002, at Huddersfield Town Football Stadium.
25:39There was a crowd of thousands, and there was an awful lot of police officers attended, fire brigade, who had
25:47all been all badly affected by this tragedy.
25:51This was a crime against the community.
25:54By the time it came to organising the funeral, the family were still emotionally affected, traumatised.
26:02Trying to think straight when you're under such great trauma is difficult.
26:07John and I took it upon ourselves to try and help with the organisation of the funeral.
26:14From where the family live, you can see Huddersfield Town Football Ground.
26:17And at that time I had big contacts with the football grounders, one of my boys played football there.
26:22I contacted Huddersfield Town and asked them if it would be possible that we could hold a service for the
26:29family at the football ground.
26:31And that would give us the opportunity for many people to attend.
26:34They were fantastic and agreed to the whole process.
26:37The co-op funeral care were absolutely amazing.
26:40They provided eight separate hearses with a funeral director assigned to each body.
26:47There was eight coffins from little babies all the way up to adults.
26:55Me and my colleague Christine had to go on behalf of the family to the funeral home and leave flowers
27:02and notes and pillows for each member of the family that had died.
27:06Me and Christine held our brave faces while we were doing it.
27:09And then at the end of that we went and then sat back in the CID car and me and
27:14Christine both burst into tears.
27:16And talk things through because we were support for each other.
27:23And I think that it's vitally important that you work in pairs so that you've got that support.
27:31It was a good feeling that people cared about what happened and they were there for us.
27:47I'm looking for why has this house been targeted.
27:51Shafiq's younger brother, Atik Raymond, is 18.
27:56He goes to the same college as a lad called Saud, who was going out with a girl called Shahida.
28:02There was no real link between the Chisti family and the attackers.
28:08But what there was, Atik was friends with a young man called Saud Pervez.
28:15Saud was going out with Shahid Mohammed's sister.
28:19Shahid Mohammed's family didn't approve of it because they were young.
28:29I think she was 17 at the time and he was 18.
28:33They wanted her to have more education too early for her to be in a relationship and to get married.
28:45Also, they were different cast. Possibly that was another factor.
28:52Saud and Shahida, going back to October 2001, had fled up to Newcastle.
29:00Her brother didn't like this, so him and his friends, Shahid Mohammed, Shahid Iqbal, his gang, if you like, if
29:07you want to call them that,
29:08go up to Newcastle, drag them back.
29:11And when I say drag them back, they kidnap him.
29:15Saud gets a beating, he gets pistol whipped, he gets threatened with death, and they warn him, stay away from
29:21my sister.
29:22In December, the couple have fled again, up there, and it happens again.
29:28Newcastle police are looking at this team for kidnapping and assault.
29:34Atik knows about this.
29:36Newcastle police look to Atik because he knows about it and want him to be a witness.
29:42Atik does not want to be involved in any way, shape or form.
29:48Shahid Iqbal and Shahid Mohammed had already assaulted Atik.
29:52We're finding out that Atik was the target.
29:55He didn't want to be involved.
29:57They warned her that they would kill him.
29:58And of course, a few days later, they do.
30:05Through the Newcastle inquiry, through the people that were now talking, through the family,
30:11we got to know all the mobile phone numbers of the gang.
30:15Through cell site analysis, we do some tremendous work.
30:19And it shows us all the phones, all those involved, on the night and then into the early hours,
30:29parking up on St John's Road.
30:32This gives the intelligence we need.
30:34We know who's done it, we know where they were, we know what they said afterwards,
30:38we know where they've texted.
30:40After they've petrol bombed the house and poured fuel through the letterbox,
30:44three cars have gone off in different directions.
30:46Through the intelligence work, we are able to show where the three cars went,
30:52what routes they took, and then they all meet up in a place in Bradford,
30:57what was it like a security office works.
31:01We search that area and we recover burnt clothing.
31:05They've been advised, get rid of all your clothing, get rid of your phones,
31:09you don't want any connection to this.
31:12So everything's come together.
31:14We get sufficient evidence to go to the Crown Prosecution Service.
31:18We charge Shaheed Iqbal with eight counts of murder.
31:22We charge him with conspiracy to commit damage or endanger life by arson.
31:26And Naseem Hussain and Shaheed Shaqeel Shahzad were charged with manslaughter and relevant offences.
31:35Again, the conspiracy to commit arson and cause damage.
31:39I remember Shaheed Mohammed had skipped bail,
31:42leaving other people to get convicted for offences that he was involved in.
31:58The trial started in July 2003.
32:03At home, after the incident and also when the trial happened,
32:08John and Christine, they were great help.
32:10The trial is one of the most traumatic parts for the victim's family,
32:16especially in this case because every member of the family were witnesses.
32:24What that means is that none of them can go sit in court
32:27until they're given their evidence.
32:29In order to prepare the family for trial, we took them on a pre-court visit
32:34so they could look at the courtroom, have it explain to them where they would be given evidence
32:39so that they weren't going into the unknown.
32:42And explain the whole procedure to them.
32:45And that makes it feel a little bit easier when you get there.
32:48I told them that the defence might ask a question you're not happy with,
32:51but just stick to your honest story at all times.
32:54But also, we prepared them in other ways in that you don't always get a guilty verdict
33:02to talk them through how we would deal with that.
33:10And I was with them every bit of the day.
33:13During the trial, I'm with me and Christine picking them up in a big transit van
33:17and transporting them to court every day.
33:20They're actually brilliant.
33:21Between myself and John, one of us would always be with both parts of the family,
33:27the one that had given their evidence and the one that were waiting to give their evidence.
33:32As far as the family as a rule goes, you're not just dipping in and out, you're there at all
33:37times.
33:38It's never easy for witnesses and family of the deceased to sit, give evidence and look at the suspects.
33:48They stuck to the facts and they were able to stand up there
33:52and face the people that had done these awful things to them.
33:57When the jury went out to deliberate, we all went bound to the family room.
34:01It's such a nail-biting situation when you're waiting for a jury to come back.
34:06That was one of the worst times ever, waiting for the jury to come back with a verdict.
34:12Feeling nervous, wondering what's taking so long.
34:18The suspects were all found guilty of various charges.
34:23On the 30th of July 2003, Shaquille Shahzad and Nazar Hussain were convicted of manslaughter of the eight members of
34:35the Chishti family.
34:36And they were sentenced to 18 years in prison.
34:41The third offender got conviction for murder for 23 years.
34:52These individuals, most of the offenders, they are behind bars.
34:57However, it wouldn't bring our family members back.
35:04The initial trial was concluded and everybody was sent to prison, but it wasn't over for the family.
35:12The investigation was trained, Trace, Shaid, Mohammed.
35:16This took her a long, long time.
35:22In 2011, I actually retired as a police officer.
35:26I had retired in 2013, but we kept in touch.
35:31The search for Shaid Mohammed was still ongoing, and I was still in contact with the family.
35:35We kept, kept contact at all time.
35:40Shahid Mohammed was still outstanding.
35:42There was anecdotal intelligence as to where he could be, but the process of trying to identify where he was,
35:49was proving very difficult.
36:00I'm Lisa Griffin, and I was the Detective Superintendent SIO leading the next Chishti family murder investigation.
36:07And I joined the Homicide and Major Inquiry team in 2010.
36:11That was my first encounter with the investigation.
36:17My investigation team included a number of officers who had worked on the Birkby House fire from the initial stages.
36:25The conclusive evidence that Shahid Mohammed, who was involved in the fire, came with the forensic examination.
36:32Accelerants were found on his footwear, but that information was not available to the investigating team while he was in
36:39police custody.
36:40Those results came back later, after he'd been released on police bail.
36:52It was 2013, and we were going to approach the 10th anniversary, and it seemed an appropriate time to do
37:00an appeal to the public.
37:03I held a press conference with the family.
37:06I invited in the media, and we covered it as widely as we possibly could to make an appeal to
37:11the public.
37:12We did get several calls from the public who informed that he had fled the country and that he was
37:18in Pakistan.
37:19We established that he was in Jellam City.
37:27We wanted him to be extradited to the UK so that he would face trial in a British court of
37:32law and be sentenced in accordance with UK law.
37:36We worked closely with my counterpart, an SIO within Pakistan.
37:41Only a limited number of my investigation team were aware that we were deploying to Pakistan.
37:47We didn't want any risk of the offender being alerted to our presence within Pakistan and of the arrest inquiries
37:54being undertaken.
37:57We had to be really careful as well, making contact with the Chisti family, because we were conscious that the
38:06Muslim community is a really tight community.
38:09They go to mosque and, you know, and they discuss things.
38:13They were sworn to secrecy. It was very important that they kept things tight within the family.
38:23The team I sent to Pakistan were the core elements of my investigation team, and they were trustworthy and reliable.
38:31We're clear in our objective that we need to secure evidence to support the arrest of Shaheen Mahmood.
38:40In October 2015, my colleague identified a property in Jellam City.
38:47He sent that back to me.
38:49I looked at a photograph of a number of males on a balcony and identified one of those individuals as
38:57Shaheen Mahmood.
38:58Once the sighting was confirmed, we wanted to effect the arrest without any delay.
39:03This was quite a time of worry and concern, because it was probably going to be the only opportunity we
39:10had.
39:16The arrest was rapid. The officers were able to gain entry to the premise, and Shaheen Mahmood was caught very
39:24much off guard, very much surprised by their presence.
39:28It was a moment of sheer joy and relief, because we'd worked hard for that.
39:35I'd often thought about how I would react at that moment.
39:40And the reality was, it sounds a bit dramatic, but I just went and sat alone, because I knew I
39:47would have to break the news to Shafiq and his family that we'd finally secured the arrest of Shaheen Mahmood.
39:54And after 13 years of trying, we finally got him in custody.
40:03Sadly, Mr. Chisti had passed away, so he never would find out that Shaheen Mahmood had been arrested.
40:09DC Craig Briggs went to see the family, and he gave the news to Shafiq.
40:17And in a little twist of fate, Shafiq actually rang the family liaison officer, which is usually the opposite way
40:24around.
40:25So Shafiq told him the news that Shaheen Mahmood had been arrested.
40:31I was filling up for him. I was so pleased.
40:35The family were immensely grateful for the outcome.
40:41We never gave up.
40:44Police never gave up.
40:46They continued with their investigation.
40:51And finally, they brought him over.
40:53They put their wholehearted trust in us.
40:56And in return, we were able to celebrate the success of the outcome with them.
41:01And from that point onwards, the role again commenced back with the job.
41:09Usually the investigations last between, I don't know, six to 12 months.
41:12The Birkby House fire ones lasted, for me, 23 years.
41:24We started the same procedure again.
41:26Took them to the ground court.
41:28They were pleased to be there to give evidence at court.
41:32And they were pleased that, at last, they could at least say goodbye to the investigation.
41:38They were good that, after 17 years, the same people were all there.
41:43We were all there together.
41:45DC Briggs was called to go into court.
41:47So it was nice for everybody who was involved in the initial investigation,
41:51to be there and back for the family.
41:53I was called to give evidence at the trial of Shaheed Mohammed.
41:56It was quite satisfying to see him facing justice finally.
42:02It was hard to remember everything that you'd done 17 years previously.
42:09But I felt a great duty to the Chisty family to make sure that I got it right.
42:16To make sure that this man wasn't going anywhere other than to prison.
42:26The jury went out to deliberate, and we were all sat with the family thinking,
42:32come on, because the quicker the jury are back, the better.
42:37And we were all waiting for the conviction.
42:39It was electric.
42:47When they give that result of guilty, it was fantastic.
42:51I was so pleased for the family.
42:52That was great when the jury read that out.
42:55I remember just feeling very emotional,
42:59thinking or realising this is the end of a long, long road.
43:05The judge gave his sentencing.
43:09It was 23 years for the murder of eight people.
43:14He could only sentence on the guidelines that were in place in 2002, 2003.
43:20The unduly lenient sentence was increased from 23 years to 27 years.
43:29I don't think Shaheed Mohammed had any change in his demeanour when he was sentenced for the murder of eight
43:34people.
43:36No, no reaction.
43:49I still can't comprehend that this happened to our family.
43:53Over trivial things which were between two other individuals or families.
43:58And whenever I miss my parents, my siblings, I turn to my children, my wife, and that takes my mind
44:12away.
44:18Very nice to see you.
44:21Good to see you too.
44:23Are you well, buddy?
44:28Shafiq, the first time I met you was when we came to see you in hospital when you were in
44:33Manchester.
44:34I don't even think you were probably aware that we were there.
44:38No.
44:39But, sir, you were in a bad way.
44:42I was, I think, unconscious most of the time.
44:45Eight people lost their lives in this horrendous, unnecessary and evil attack.
44:51You've been incredible, Shafal.
44:52And that was very tough.
44:54I know.
44:54Last time I spoke to people there.
44:56It's never going to be easy.
44:58Never will be that you've been incredible all the way through.
45:01Dealing with such a horrific investigation is hard for anybody.
45:06Look at how far you've come, though.
45:08Look at, you know, you've got your own babies.
45:12Babies that are not so bad.
45:14And that's what keeps me going.
45:16Yeah.
45:17The family, a new family.
45:19And children.
45:21Yeah.
45:21Yeah.
45:22Yeah.
45:22In this case, because it was such a horrific offence, and because the investigation lasted
45:29for nearly 20 years, you tend to live the investigation.
45:35Being a family liaison officer is one of the best jobs ever in the police, because you are
45:42in such a privileged position to get to know people at the worst, and hopefully to see them
45:49come out the other end on the road to recovery, and learning to live with a new form of normal.
45:59I can't thank you enough.
46:04Without that help and support, we would have struggled.
46:08The Chisties are very, very special, and they'll always be special to me.
46:53I would like to thank you for taking the time.
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