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00:11In February 2004, human remains had been found at the side of the River Kent in Sedgwick, in the Lake
00:18District.
00:23The remains themselves were actually found just metres from the road
00:28in the undergrowth here, a really remote and quite lonely spot, really.
00:37There'd been a lot of rain, the river had overflowed.
00:41And when those water levels dropped, that's when these remains were discovered.
00:50No idea how this person had died or any more details,
00:55but I knew, in my gut, who it was.
01:01The End
01:25Six years would pass before reports of an armed robbery in suburbia
01:30led Detective Chief Inspector Geraint Jones to discover what had happened to the remains found in the Cumbrian countryside.
01:38I always had a close eye on this case, obviously it had been with me for a long time.
01:44I was in holiday in France and I got a phone call from a colleague to say she's talking.
01:51And I knew straight away what he meant.
01:54The family kept gold in the house instead of using a bank account.
02:01So the family report to the police basically that someone's broken in the house,
02:06threatened them with weapons and took their gold.
02:09But when a family member was arrested and interviewed for carrying out the robbery,
02:14a much darker story began to unfold about what had happened behind closed doors at the house in Great Sankey,
02:22Warrington.
02:25Events that took DCI Jones and his team back to 2003,
02:30when local girl, 17-year-old Shafilia Ahmed, was reported missing.
02:43Shafilia was a 17-year-old girl from Warrington.
02:47She went to school at Great Sankey High School.
02:51Then into the sixth form, she went missing.
02:59We got the press release from Cheshire Police to say Shafilia had gone missing.
03:06That was it, it was a missing persons appeal.
03:08But I knew as soon as it came in, I don't know why,
03:13but sometimes you get a sense as a journalist something is going to be a bit different.
03:18And Shafilia came in, I looked at the picture and I said to the news team,
03:22this is going to develop into something.
03:30Warrington is just a normal northern town.
03:35You know, nothing outstanding, nothing really remarkable about it.
03:40In between Liverpool and Manchester, just like any northern town,
03:49when something big happens in Warrington,
03:51everybody talks about it and everybody knows what is going on.
03:58But who was the girl everybody was talking about?
04:02Who was Shafilia Ahmed?
04:05Shafilia lived at home with her mum and dad.
04:08She had three sisters and a brother, all of whom were younger than her.
04:14She was at college, she had a dream of becoming a lawyer.
04:19From what her friends said about her, she was bubbly, really intelligent, really ambitious.
04:27And, you know, really, really wanted to make something of a life.
04:35Shafilia was someone who really loved her younger siblings.
04:39They would have dancing contests or singing contests.
04:44She's someone that really, I think, loved life.
04:49As happy as Shafilia seemed to the outside world,
04:53at home, where the traditional values of her parents,
04:56Farzana and Iftaka, were taken to the extreme,
04:59things were very different.
05:02From what we know about Shafilia now,
05:04her home life with her parents was absolutely horrendous.
05:10She's made a lot of friends at school and at college,
05:12wanting to spend time with them,
05:14but her mum and dad didn't want her to do that.
05:17Their culture was completely different.
05:21I'm Nina Olk, I'm an activist.
05:23I speak out against honour-based violence.
05:27I survived on myself at the hands of my family,
05:30and now I train the police.
05:32Shafilia and I both shared a similar upbringing
05:36in the sense of girls are not wanted in our culture.
05:39There's a lot of violence, there's a lot of control.
05:42From my own experience living in a culture
05:44where honour-based abuse is rife,
05:48when you go home from school your heart sinks,
05:51you don't want to be there.
05:52It definitely wasn't a home where she would have felt safe.
05:58She was abused quite badly, physically,
06:01but also emotionally.
06:02She would be beaten.
06:05A lot of the things that I think triggered the violence at home
06:09was what we would consider normal.
06:13She wants to dress in a certain way
06:15or she wants to have contact with boys,
06:18but her parents found this very, very difficult.
06:23The result of that would be that Shafilia was very heavily controlled.
06:29It was later revealed that Shafilia had tried to break free from the abuse
06:34by running away from home, that her attempt at freedom was short-lived.
06:38She was found, brought back against her will,
06:42drugged and then forced onto a flight to Pakistan.
06:47As the investigation progressed, we were told that Shafilia had actually been taken to Pakistan
06:52for a forced marriage.
06:54While she was there, she had drunk bleach to avoid this arranged marriage
07:01because her mum had told her she was going to stay in Pakistan.
07:07You can't imagine how desperate you would be to have to drink bleach.
07:12She was trying to end her life.
07:15Her dad explains that away by saying Shafilia had mistakenly drunk bleach instead of mouthwash.
07:26It was totally accidental and that's what she told the doctors here in the hospital when she came back as
07:31well.
07:32Forgive me, but how do you drink a bottle of bleach accidentally?
07:35It wasn't actually a bottle of bleach that she drank,
07:38it was just a sip that she had mistakenly taken it as a mouthwash.
07:43So she was incredibly poorly with that.
07:46She was in hospital in Pakistan for a while,
07:49then got so ill she was brought back to Warrington straight to the hospital.
07:54After months recovering from the severe damage to her throat,
07:58Shafilia eventually returned to college.
08:01But on the 18th of September 2003, police received a phone call.
08:09It came about that a teacher at school heard rumours that Shafilia wasn't around anymore.
08:17That teacher was aware of some of the issues that were going on in the house,
08:21so she alerted the police.
08:28When the police went to the house to carry out a missing person investigation,
08:34they initially talked to Farzana, who said she couldn't speak English,
08:38and for them to wait for her husband, Iftika, to come home.
08:44When the police went to the house, Iftika told the officers that Shafilia had run away,
08:50similarly to how she had run away a couple of years before,
08:54in that she'd gone in the night and put the keys through the letterbox,
08:57and they hadn't seen her since.
09:092003, and police were still searching for schoolgirl Shafilia Ahmed.
09:14Shafilia Ahmed disappeared 11 weeks ago.
09:18It's thought she fled her family because they were arranging a marriage for her.
09:22She's in need of regular medical treatment after swallowing a caustic substance.
09:30My suspicions grew very quickly that Shafilia's disappearance was not right.
09:39The emerging picture of a girl that had been kept prisoner in the house,
09:45been subject to domestic abuse, and talk of being forced into marriage in Pakistan.
09:51So there was little bits culminating in a big picture that these parents were abusing Shafilia
09:59and were somehow involved in her disappearance.
10:07The police were contacted that a pharmacy in Edinburgh had some footage of a girl
10:11that they said looked like Shafilia.
10:15So that video was collected and shown to Iftika and Farzana.
10:21They indicated that it's Shafilia and basically said,
10:26well, that's it then. Is that okay? She seems okay.
10:31Unusual.
10:32So we showed the video to the schoolteacher as well.
10:37She said that didn't look like Shafilia.
10:41It transpires when we did some more enquiries that that girl was not Shafilia,
10:46it was a Turkish girl who was bigger than Shafilia as well.
10:50And really, when you look at images of Shafilia, you'd be quite clear that it's not her.
10:56So again, it rose more suspicion on the family that why would they say it was her when they know
11:02her better than anyone else.
11:05As the search for Shafilia continued, local journalist Claire Hanna realised that this was no ordinary missing persons investigation.
11:16As time went on, it grew bigger.
11:20Because I think the police had an inkling straight away that something wasn't right.
11:27Because her parents, it wasn't them that had initially reported her missing.
11:31It was a college that had flagged it up.
11:33And then as the police looked more into it, it became a bigger story.
11:37There was an actress called Shabna Gulati.
11:40She read some of Shafilia's poems out.
11:42I don't pretend like we're the perfect family no more.
11:46Desire to live is burning.
11:48My stomach is turning.
11:50But they all think it's about honour.
11:55We just knew that something was different.
11:59As suspicion grew about Iftika and Farzana Ahmed's involvement in their daughter's disappearance,
12:06Geraint Jones turned to forensics for answers.
12:11When conducting these type of investigations of serious crime,
12:15there's extensive searching and forensic work.
12:19So in Shafilia's house, there was a thorough examination looking for any evidence of a crime, blood.
12:32A lot of work on mobile telephones.
12:34Now this was back in 2003.
12:37So the evidence available from mobile telephones was a bit more challenging to obtain than it is today.
12:45During this investigation, we carried out what we call intrusive surveillance into the house at Great Sankey.
12:53To see if we could obtain evidence and intelligence as to what's happened to Shafilia or where she might be.
13:02What we found was that the language they spoke, Punjabi, was a challenging language for us to find an accredited
13:08interpreter.
13:17What was emerging as the tapes were transcribed was that there was clear indication that these two were involved.
13:29There was a lot of arguing and pointing of fingers, but mainly they were talking about how to get off
13:35it and what the police would be doing rather than the act itself of killing her.
13:39And that was a frustrating part where they didn't actually at any time say they'd killed her on that audio
13:47recording.
13:48As the investigation intensified, Shafilia's parents appeared on TV with Iftaka asserting their innocence and denying any involvement in their
13:58daughter's disappearance.
14:00Would we kill our own daughter?
14:02Would we kill our own daughter?
14:03Or would you?
14:03Never.
14:06Couldn't even dream of it.
14:09With time going on and all the evidence being gathered and all the circumstances presented, this was moving from a
14:17suspicious disappearance to something quite different.
14:20And at that point, I was treating this case as a murder investigation.
14:30It was six months after Shafilia went missing in September, we got a press release about human remains being discovered
14:37at the side of a river.
14:40I was listening out all the time for any news or any bulletins in policing about bodies being found.
14:46And I was driving into work and I heard on the Northwest News that a body had been found in
14:54Cumbria.
14:55It was a murder of a female.
14:57This body was badly decomposed and the work they'd done so far had been unable to identify her.
15:08As soon as the press release landed in the inbox to say a body had been found, I actually said
15:15to the news team, that's Shafilia, I would stake my life on it.
15:18I don't know how I knew, but I just knew it was.
15:24But decomposition meant the identity of the body on the riverbank would remain a mystery until forensic scientists stepped in.
15:35When a body is found in a decomposed state, there are a number of challenges that the pathologist would face
15:41in identifying the body.
15:43The discoloration of the skin could make it difficult, for example, to tell the ethnicity of the person.
15:50The facial features may change because of the decomposition, rendering it impossible to know who the person was, for example,
15:58from comparison with a photograph.
16:01And then as decomposition advanced, you would lose soft tissue.
16:05There may be interference by animals, insects, the changed state of the body further.
16:14The body may become disarticulated, so parts of the body could fall away or be taken away by scavenging animals.
16:23All of this would make it very difficult to identify an individual.
16:37I made contact again with the Cumbria police and asked them to send the dental records of this body that
16:43they'd found.
16:45So that came through and we quickly took that dental chart to Shafelia's dentist.
16:53They said there's some real similarities, but the difference was there are two white fillings and Shafelia's lower teeth.
17:01And they're not on this chart.
17:04So they're close, but not Shafelia.
17:09But there was something about the way the family were behaving and all the circumstances to me.
17:17I just wasn't satisfied with that.
17:22As a senior investigating officer, it's ingrained in you to absolutely check everything.
17:26So I thought, right, I'm not happy with this.
17:29So I travelled up to Cumbria because there was something that wasn't quite right.
17:35I then asked to look at the mandible, which is the lower jaw that the police had recovered,
17:40and I could actually physically see the white fillings that had been described by the dentist.
17:47I seized the mandible with the intent to show it to Shafelia's dentist.
17:54Mr. Southern, her dentist, looked at that mandible that day
17:57and confirmed that the dental work is his and that is highly likely to be Shafelia.
18:06So we were now armed with the fact that the dental records are showing this is Shafelia, but we needed
18:13more.
18:15Alongside dental records, jewellery that was found on the body was identified by her parents
18:21as being similar to that which Shafelia would have worn.
18:24All clues pointed to who the body was, but it was the key component of every modern day forensic investigation
18:32that would provide ultimate proof.
18:36In cases where the soft tissue of the body has been lost and you are left with skeletal remains, DNA
18:43becomes vital in identifying the body.
18:49In such cases this DNA would be taken from bone, typically from the bone marrow within the femur, the thigh
18:56bone.
19:00The identification of Shafelia was properly done through DNA by obtaining a sample of bone marrow and that took a
19:08few days to get through.
19:11I knew it was going through.
19:13I knew it was going to be Shafelia.
19:15And when that DNA evidence came through, it was a sense of real momentum.
19:23With DNA proving who the body was, scientists now had to turn their forensic expertise to finding out how Shafelia
19:31had died.
19:32In this case, because of the nature of where the body was found and the fact that this was a
19:38young person with no natural disease
19:40and the overtly suspicious background circumstances, the pathological findings or lack of them was somewhat less important.
19:48So a natural cause of death was ruled out on that basis rather than the pathological findings themselves.
19:59So the pathologist, once she knew it was Shafelia, would know that this is a 17-year-old girl that
20:05just wouldn't curl up and die.
20:07So her conclusion was that some form of asphyxia would be the cause of death.
20:19She was just driven up there in the dead of night, just thrown at the side of the road like
20:28a piece of rubbish, just a really lonely, dark, undignified, awful spot.
20:34And she was just left there like a piece of rubbish.
20:40It made me really sad.
20:44I came home, it seemed like a normal day, but something wasn't right.
20:49I wish I could have changed the event. I should have killed myself instead. I'd rather have been dead.
21:04Six months after Shafelia Ahmed vanished from her home in Warrington, DNA had proved the badly decomposed body on the
21:12banks of a river 70 miles away to be that of the 17-year-old missing girl.
21:23When I'm informed about a case, I'm normally told very little about it.
21:29I was just told that a body had been found by the River Kent near Sedgwick in Cumbria, and I
21:37was asked to attend there.
21:40The questions that the police wanted me to help answer were how long Shafelia's body had been there, how long
21:49she had been deceased, and whether she had actually died at the scene or whether her body had been deposited
21:56there after death.
21:59When an animal or a human dies, the body starts to decompose straight away, and so insects will come in
22:05and they will start colonising the body.
22:08So with forensic entomology, if I can work out how old those insects are, that gives me the minimum time
22:15that the body has been deceased.
22:19What was now crucial to the investigation was establishing when Shafelia had died.
22:25It was down to forensic entomologist Amaret Whittaker to find that key evidence.
22:31The most important insects for me are the blowflies, so those are bluebottles and greenbottles.
22:37And the reason for that is because they are generally the first insects to find the body.
22:45And in this case, I did find a species of bluebottled blowfly called Callifera vomitoria associated with the body.
22:55Because the insects' development rate is dependent on the temperature, it means that in the summertime, in warm temperatures, the
23:04insects will develop very quickly.
23:06And so it may be that within a couple of weeks or so, the insects have gone through a full
23:11life cycle.
23:12And so you can't really go any further back than a couple of weeks or so.
23:17The fact that Shafelia's body was found during the wintertime was actually really useful.
23:22Because what it meant was that there were still insects developing both on the body and also in the surrounding
23:28soil.
23:29So clearly they were associated with her body and so that meant that I was able to give quite an
23:35accurate minimum time since death.
23:38I estimated that the insects had been colonising the body at least since the beginning of October, so around the
23:469th or 10th of October.
23:49That was approximately a month after Shafelia had gone missing.
23:53So although the minimum time since death was October, it's more than possible that the body was colonised any time
24:02between when Shafelia's body was deposited at the scene when she died and that date that I gave of 9th
24:11or 10th of October.
24:14One of the implications that was made to the police was that Shafelia may have just run away from home
24:21and may have been living elsewhere and that potentially she had only died relatively recently and not when she went
24:28missing.
24:28So what I was able to suggest with the analysis that I did was that she had actually died soon
24:37after she had gone missing.
24:42It suggested that the circumstances were perhaps suspicious and that therefore the police should continue their investigation.
24:52Amaret's findings proved that Shafelia must have died on or shortly after the last known sighting of her on the
25:0011th of September 2003.
25:03This placed Iftika and Farzana Ahmed firmly in the frame as prime suspects for the murder of their eldest daughter.
25:12The press conference took place. It was full. There was live television cameras.
25:19This term honour killing is not a term that I've used during this inquiry. We are treating this as simply
25:26as a murder inquiry.
25:28However, the press conference came to an abrupt end. I was made aware that Iftika and Farzana had come into
25:36the conference room, so I made an escape.
25:38Uninvited, unannounced, Shafelia's parents arrived to deny any involvement in their daughter's death.
25:47Iftika and Farzana actually barged their way into that press conference with their legal team to accuse Cheshire police of
25:58profiling of stereotyping.
26:00That inquiry should be conducted with transparency rather than being based upon any form of ethnic stereotyping.
26:10Immediately trying to control the situation, point the finger at the police to absolve themselves of any blame.
26:21However, the Ahmed's cultural background and the notion of honour within the community became a major part of the investigation.
26:28Iftika and Farzana come from a village in Pakistan.
26:34A village that culture is very important that the male, the patriarch of the family is in control.
26:44And the women are the ones who carry the honour of the family.
26:49And that mentality or behaviour continued with them.
26:55So for him, his family were the perfect family.
27:01His girls would conform and be the way they should in his mind.
27:08And Farzana was the enforcer of that.
27:14I do understand the concept of shame and honour because it's a very real thing when you grow up in
27:20the culture, in the home, in the community.
27:24It's really a real thing where you grow up to not want to do things that might shame your mum
27:31and dad in a community setting.
27:34I think her mum and dad were so obsessed with the standing in the community and how they looked.
27:41And they were so afraid of one of the children bringing shame to them.
27:49Shefilia's parents came from a Muslim Pakistani background.
27:53I know that her father moved to this country when he was quite young, from a village in Gujarat, where
28:02people would tend to have the same mindset, the same cultural rules almost.
28:07It's like an unspoken way of living your life.
28:12It's not because she was Muslim, it's because of culture, because a lot of people blame the religion.
28:17It's not the religion, it's the cultural mentality.
28:21As strongly as the police believed they had the right suspects, the Ahmeds continued to protest their innocence.
28:27Months after Shefilia's disappearance, the two sides of the investigation had reached a stalemate.
28:35I had a briefing with the barrister and he got to a point where he said there are strong aspects
28:44of the case that could well result in the prosecution and conviction of Iftik and Farzana, but based a lot
28:51on circumstantial evidence.
28:53So at that point, the decision of the CPS was there was insufficient evidence for prosecution.
29:05The inquest into Shefilia's death took place, it was about four and a half years after Shefilia's body was found,
29:12it took place at Kendall Town Hall.
29:14And it was so important, we know inquests don't blame anyone, they just established the circumstances of the death.
29:24Really significantly at the inquest, the coroner's verdict, the coroner said Shefilia was the victim of a very vile murder.
29:37During the inquest, Shefilia's parents presented themselves as they have all along really, there's kind of an arrogance with them
29:46and they kind of just look like they think they've done nothing wrong.
29:50And Iftikar in particular, just like, you know, I've done nothing wrong, really, really arrogant. And Farzana, for me, she
29:58had quite a chilling air about her.
30:01I could never understand she had given birth to Shefilia.
30:08Despite the efforts of detectives and forensics, the investigation into Shefilia's death made little progress.
30:15Even after the coroner's inquest concluded her death was unnatural and suspicious, there were still no clear leads.
30:24For a long time, justice seemed out of reach.
30:30There was insufficient evidence to bring Iftik and Farzana to court, but strong suspicion that they'd been responsible for murder.
30:38So, we were left hanging, I would describe it, seeking more evidence.
30:44My own feeling was that it just needed someone from the family to open up.
30:50Without evidence from within the family, we would never get them prosecuted.
30:57Geraint would have to wait another two years before receiving the news he wanted.
31:03I was in holiday in France and I got a phone call from a colleague to say she's talking.
31:09And I knew straight away what he meant.
31:11It transpired that Alicia, Shefilia's sister, was in police custody on suspicion of robbery.
31:19And whilst in custody, she revealed the striking events that occurred on the 11th of September 2003.
31:31From what we understand, Alicia had staged a robbery at the family home.
31:36She's been arrested.
31:42While she's in custody, she says, I saw my mum and dad kill my sister.
31:49And that changed everything.
32:04Detectives had determined that Alicia Ahmed, like Shefilia, had been a victim of her parents' abuse and control.
32:12And in order to retrieve money taken from her, she staged a robbery.
32:17Once in the safety of police custody, the truth about what had happened to her older sister finally emerged.
32:27I had a telephone call in 2010 from Cheshire Police.
32:35They told me that there'd been an armed robbery at an address in Warrington.
32:39And that a family member had been arrested because she was believed to be involved in the robbery.
32:48She had been taken into interview and she asked for the interview to be suspended and she said that she
32:55wished to speak to police officers.
32:58In an informal conversation with police officers, she told them that she had witnessed her parents killing her sister.
33:09When Alicia revealed that she and her siblings had witnessed her parents killing her sister, I then had the witness
33:17that prosecution counsel had wished that he had had in 2005.
33:27This was a long period of my life, starting in 2003 through to 2012.
33:34A long court case, a dramatic court case with lots of twists and turns.
33:40When the trial started, obviously the media interest was huge.
33:45Chester Crown Court is a huge old courtroom.
33:47The press gallery was packed at the start of the trial and, you know, a real feeling amongst the journalists.
33:54You know, we recognised the significance of this, that it was important.
33:59We wanted to tell Sheffilia's story and how long it had taken to get them to court.
34:03So there was a real, a buzz is the wrong word.
34:06It was just, you know, everybody really excited that we were going to see justice for Sheffilia.
34:16It was quite a long trial.
34:18I've never seen a trial like it in my life.
34:22Today, father, 52-year-old Iftika Ahmed, and mother, 49-year-old Farzana, went on trial accused of murder.
34:31Alicia Ahmed had told police that she would be willing to testify against her own parents in court.
34:42It would appear that Alicia's evidence was the final piece of the puzzle to Sheffilia's murder.
34:47But her credibility as a witness quickly fell into question.
34:53There were various issues around Alicia's evidence.
34:57Clearly, she was at odds with her parents.
35:02There was also the problem that Alicia had made a statement earlier on supporting the parents' account,
35:10to the effect that Sheffilia had run away in the night.
35:15The two cases had to be handled separately so that it couldn't be suggested that she was given preferential treatment
35:22with regard to the robbery in return for her evidence in the murder case.
35:28There was a fear that she might be at risk of violence from the extended family,
35:34or from members of the community who felt that, in giving evidence against her parents,
35:40she was breaking some sort of code.
35:45Alicia was in witness protection.
35:48I was very relieved when Alicia finally gave her evidence in court.
35:55When she was giving her evidence, you could have heard a pin drop in the courtroom.
36:01Alicia's evidence, although given behind screens so no-one in the court could see her,
36:06was sharp, emotional and resilient.
36:13Despite having significant cross-examination by two barristers representing Iftica and Farzana,
36:20she remained consistent, honest and reliable throughout her testimony.
36:28Alicia gave evidence in such a way that it was obvious to everybody in the courtroom
36:37that she was actually describing something she had seen.
36:42It wasn't a fabricated story.
36:44She was describing events to which she was a witness.
36:51Despite Alicia's composure under cross-examination, her involvement in the robbery was seized upon by the defence.
36:58I remember reading online the trial reports and Alicia was the first witness.
37:06And what she was saying was 100% true.
37:11I remember reading how, in cross-examination, they were trying to paint her as a liar.
37:17And I remember thinking, she's not a liar.
37:20She's not lying about this.
37:24Up until this point, the prosecution's case hung on Alicia as their star witness.
37:30That was until new evidence came to light in the form of letters written years earlier
37:35by younger sister Mevish to family friend Shaheen Mania.
37:41Mevish explained to me that during the day, a family friend had called her mum to gossip,
37:48to complain about what Shafila was wearing in town that they didn't approve.
37:54And I think this had made her mum quite angry.
37:59And when it came to later in the day to pick Shafila up from work,
38:04Shafila had forgotten her coat and was only wearing a T-shirt.
38:08So when they were in the car, her mum was really angry.
38:13And Mevish said to me that she remembered Shafila actually being really quiet.
38:19Almost resigned.
38:21It's almost like she knew.
38:25Alicia described how they were all in the living room.
38:30There'd been an argument.
38:33Farzana pushed Shafila down onto the settee
38:38and said something along the lines of,
38:41just finish it.
38:42Just finish it here.
38:48Mrs Ahmed was really angry.
38:53They went and got a plastic bag.
38:59And her mum and dad held her down and covered her mouth.
39:05And they used this bag to suffocate her.
39:13I'll never get the image out of my head.
39:16The terror in her eyes.
39:19It's just horrific.
39:21That poor girl.
39:23That poor, beautiful girl.
39:25The children had seen, like, the life got out of Shafila.
39:41Sahin's testimony validated what Alicia had told police.
39:46That on the 11th of September 2003, her parents had murdered Shafila in front of her younger siblings.
39:54very brave girl Shaheen the fact that she'd said I saw this trial was happening I heard what was
40:00going on I knew it was wrong and I knew I could make a difference and that's why she came
40:04forward
40:04because she knew it was wrong so she did the right thing really brave being a witness in a murder
40:14trial especially when the people that are accused are your best and closest friends mum and dad it
40:22is very very difficult but when cross-examination happened I think for me gave me a bit of a fire
40:31because I really wanted to make sure the truth was known and one of the things I said was you
40:38know what's right is right and what's wrong is wrong and that's why we're here Shaheen's evidence was the
40:46turning point in the trial and the Ahmed's defense quickly crumbled as the case progressed the defense
40:56were presenting their side of the story it was very clear to most people there that it was weak
41:04on this case is charging to a conviction after 25 years of marriage in a united front throughout this
41:11whole case today was the day Shafiliya's mother dramatically turned the tables on her own husband
41:20Farzana out of the blue comes up with a defense statement saying that she's innocent that she's a
41:27victim of domestic abuse and that Iftika is the sole offender and he killed Shafiliya I think it was just
41:34desperation I don't think there was any credibility with that account after a three-month trial and two
41:45days of deliberations in August 2012 nine years after Shafiliya went missing the jury returned with their
41:53verdict memorable day the jury went out that long really for a murder they came back with a unanimous verdict
42:09both parents were convicted of Shafiliya's murder and they were sentenced to life with a minimum term of 25
42:20years for me it was relief knowing Shafiliya finally got justice and that the world knew the truth after
42:28all these years finally Shafiliya's story was known that she could rest in peace
42:41on conviction if Tika's demeanor changed from arrogance to anger and you could see that he is a dangerous individual
42:55Farzana's portrayal of a grieving mother changed to a wailing wreck but no sympathy for her because I
43:05know what that house was like and she is certainly no victim
43:21one of the things that I think back on and really reflect is how much Shafiliya actually changed the
43:28world it makes me really quite proud that her story was used to impact
43:35in such a positive way there's no honor in killing and there's definitely no honor in the murder of Shafiliya
44:16you
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