The Horrifying & Disturbing Case of Shafilia Ahmed

Brief Case

Today I am narrating the case that I have had the most requests to cover in 2020. The case of Shafilea Ahmed   Please remember to subscribe and hit the bell icon as well as leave a like and a comment for more videos every week!  Brief Case is a True Crime Channel focusing on old or lost cases that have been forgotten to history. If you have any recommendations for future cases that you would like to bring to light, feel free to reach out to me to: briefcaseuk@gmail.com  Music by CO.AG Music - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwZB4l43iTw&t=105s Music by Myuu -https://www.youtube.com/user/myuuji Music by Kevin Macleod - https://incompetech.com   Sources: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/aug/03/shafilea-ahmed-history-of-violence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Shafilea_Ahmed https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/shows/when-missing-turns-to-murder/articles/shafilea-ahmed-a-victim-of-honour-abuse https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20356520 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2233951/Shafilea-Ahmeds-sister-Alesha-spared-jail-organising-robbery-parents-house.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4843410/Shafilea-s-sister-thinks-killer-parents-innocent.html https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/shocking-murder-teenager-shafilea-ahmed-16133367 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19119014  #ShafiliaAhmed #BriefCase #TrueCrime

Transcript

00:07Today we are looking at a case from the 21st century. So sit back as we go to England.

00:18Shafilia Ahmed was born on July the 14th 1986 to parents Iftika and Farzana Ahmed. Her parents

00:28were originally from the village of Utam in the Gujarat district of Pakistan but after an arranged

00:35marriage they moved to England. Originally Iftika had strongly opposed to the union as he was in love

00:41with a non-muslim woman. Whilst travelling to Copenhagen in the early 1980s he met a Danish

00:47lady named Viv and later he married her and had a son. His family however did not accept the marriage

00:55and did not consider that Viv was actually his wife. About four years later Iftika returned to

01:02Pakistan to visit his sick mother. Whilst there she reminded him that he'd always agreed to marry his

01:09cousin named Farzana. The marriage had been agreed for Farzana for most of her life and if it were not

01:16to happen Farzana may have been shunned by her community. Adamant to persuade Iftika to follow

01:22her through with the marriage. Farzana became emotionally unstable and a danger to herself

01:27and others. Reluctantly under the immense pressure put on him by his family Iftika agreed to marry

01:35Farzana. After the marriage he returned to England alone and convinced his Danish wife and son to move

01:42from Denmark so they could all be together in the hope of starting a new life. Soon after a very

01:49pregnant

01:50Farzana arrived to live with them and Iftika introduced her as his cousin. However following a visit from

01:58a health professional Iftika admitted to Viv that the baby was his and that he had married Farzana

02:04during his time in Pakistan. In the wake of this revelation Viv left him and returned to Denmark with

02:11their son. After the birth of Shefilia the couple moved to Warrington. They went on to have four more

02:18children. Their children were raised with very strict religious and cultural ideals enforced by

02:25their parents. Farzana made sure that her children had a very strict upbringing. She was a traditional

02:31housewife and expected all of her daughters to follow suit. She was extremely stern. If her children

02:38fell out of line in the slightest manner she would get angry and her punishments were often very harsh.

02:45At the age of 11 Shefilia fled from her home for the first time establishing a pattern that she

02:52repeated throughout her adolescence. She did this in a bid to gain an independent life away from the

02:58physical and psychological torture that she endured at the hands of her parents. Shefilia confided in her

03:05friends and revealed to them how she had to live under very strict rules and if she ever disobeyed her

03:11parents she was always punished. Growing up Shefilia was an intelligent, sensible and well-behaved child

03:19with ambitions to one day become a solicitor. But as she grew older Farzana and Iftika believed that

03:28she was being influenced too much by other girls her age and they found this unacceptable especially as

03:35they had tried so hard to raise her in a far more conservative way. At the age of 16 she

03:41finished

03:41secondary school with very good grades but as she entered the next stage of her education she began

03:48missing lessons. She also started to spend time with non-Muslim friends. She dressed in more western

03:54attire and started wearing makeup. She also spent time talking to boys in her school, an action particularly

04:02despised by her parents. This all resulted in many arguments between them. Her parents would tell her

04:08that she could not act like this and that she was bringing shame onto the family. Shefilia's parents

04:14took her on a trip to Pakistan for an arranged marriage to her 25 year old cousin. Once they got

04:20there

04:21her passport was confiscated. Prior to this Shefilia had repeatedly rejected her parents plans for her to

04:29marry a man of their choice. During her time in Pakistan she swallowed some bleach which was later

04:35reported as a potential attempt to take her own life and resulted in Shefilia being ill for a long time

04:41and on her return to England being hospitalized in Warrington. The man she was supposed to marry

04:48soon backed out of the arrangement. This angered Shefilia's parents tremendously as they believed that she

04:54had again shamed their family. Farzana and Iftika however blamed the incident on their daughter

05:01mistakenly picking up the wrong bottle during a power cut. Over the following months the arguments

05:08and physical abuse increased but Farzana and Iftika would keep up appearances to hide the abuse from the

05:14school, social services and the police. By insisting that they were victims of racial prejudice and

05:21Islamophobia when awkward questions were asked about why their daughter was missing school and often had

05:27bruises on her face. On the 11th of September 2003 after months of abuse an argument erupted between

05:35Shefilia and her mother. Over 17 year old Shefilia's choice of clothing, a t-shirt, tight fitting trousers and high

05:44heels.

05:45Shefilia was picked up by her mother from her part-time job and when she saw what her daughter was

05:50wearing,

05:50she was furious. The argument began in the car and continued at the house with both of her parents

05:57in the presence of her four young siblings. The next day, the 12th of September, Shefilia was absent from

06:05school and from work. This continued for the next week. No one had heard a thing, not her friends,

06:12teachers nor work colleagues. Not a single one of them had any clue where she could be.

06:21Her teachers eventually contacted the police as they were seriously concerned for Shefilia's well-being.

06:27They all knew that she had previously arrived at her lessons with fading bruises and had a history of

06:33long periods of absence. The police immediately contacted Shefilia's parents, who claimed that they had not

06:40reported their daughter missing, as they believed she had simply ran away like she had done so many

06:45times before. The police questioned her school friends and work colleagues. They did not have the

06:52slightest clue as where Shefilia could be, nor did they know if she had had any plans to run away.

06:58Her siblings were also questioned, and although they seemed as though they knew more than they were

07:04letting on, they told the police that they did not know where their sister was. Throughout the

07:09investigation, Farzana and Iftika remained very calm. It was as if they had no concern for their missing

07:16teenage daughter. After continuing to speak to Shefilia's friends, teachers and colleagues, the police's

07:24suspicion of Iftika and Farzana increased, as they learned more of the abuse that Shefilia had

07:30previously suffered at the hands of her parents. The police, however, were aware that they would be

07:36unable to obtain a confession directly, so instead they planted a recording device in the Ahmed home.

07:42From this, they were able to hear Shefilia's parents talking. They discussed whether the police would

07:48find any forensic evidence in the car. The police also heard them tell their other children

07:53not to say anything at school or to their friends. However, nothing specifically was said about the

08:00whereabouts of Shefilia. With this information, the police decided to arrest Iftika and Farzana

08:07on the suspicion of kidnapping their eldest daughter, and while searching their home, the police noticed that

08:14all of the family photographs that contained Shefilia had been removed. They continued to question the

08:21pair, but they denied anything to do with their daughter's disappearance. The officers, however,

08:27were convinced that something was not quite right about their statements, and became even more

08:32suspicious when the couple never referred to Shefilia by name, and only ever referred to her as the girl

08:39or the child. As the search produced no new evidence, the police released the couple.

08:46In February 2004, five months after the disappearance of Shefilia Ahmed, a body was found in the river Kent,

08:55near Sedgwick, in Cumbria, in northwest England. It was heavily decomposed, which made it very difficult

09:02to identify. However, with the aid of dental records, and by identifying the jewellery on the body,

09:09the police were eventually able to confirm that it was the body of Shefilia Ahmed. A post-mortem exam was

09:17carried out, but it was unable to determine the exact cause of death. However, it was confirmed that

09:23Shefilia had been dead since the time she was first reported missing. The police considered that the

09:29deceased girl's parents, Iftika and Farzana, were responsible for her death, but the evidence against

09:36them was only circumstantial, and they did not have enough to charge them with the murder of their

09:41daughter. The couple agreed to a series of television interviews, where instead of mourning the loss of

09:47Shefilia, they perpetuated a narrative stating that the police, in labelling them people of interest,

09:55were acting inherently racist. Although there was a growing suspicion surrounding them regarding her

10:01disappearance, the pair used the issues of race and religion to their advantage, and said they were

10:07being unfairly suspected. No new leads or evidence emerged, and the case stalled. Six years later,

10:15in 2010, Shefilia's younger sister, Alicia Ahmed, was arrested in connection to an armed robbery at her

10:23parents' home. Alicia was at university, and with the increasing pressure of funding her studies,

10:30she orchestrated a robbery at the Ahmed house. Alicia would be at home with her family, when her friends,

10:38three masked men, armed with a gun, a hammer and a metal bar, would break in, tie the family up,

10:46and steal jewellery and cash. However, they tied up everyone except Alicia, and this raised the suspicion

10:54of her parents, who soon became hostile towards her. When the police arrived at the house, Alicia was

11:00arrested, under the suspicion of having a hand in the events, and was taken to the police station for

11:06questioning. Initially, she denied any involvement. However, text messages between her and the robbers

11:12surfaced. While in custody, she requested to speak about another matter. It was here, that Alicia revealed to

11:21detectives that her parents, Iftika and Farzana, did in fact, commit the murder of her sister, Shefilia.

11:29They did this in her presence, and in the presence of her three siblings.

11:34Alicia, after years of silence, had suddenly become a key witness, and this was the break that the police

11:41had been waiting for in the investigation. Alicia detailed the events of the day, September the 11th,

11:482003. She said that her sister Shefilia returned home from work, in clothing that infuriated her

11:55parents, and this was the breaking point that led to her unfortunate demise. Her father then proceeded to

12:02physically abuse her, while her mother held her down, preventing her from escaping. She said that her

12:09mother shouted, just finish it here. Alicia and her siblings then watched in horror, as her parents

12:17suffocated their older sister, Iftika and Farzana, then instructed their other four children to keep

12:25quiet about what they had witnessed, or else they too would meet the same fate. Later that night, Alicia

12:31looked out of her bedroom window, and saw her father carry a body-sized bag into the boot of his

12:37car.

12:38After outlining this to the police, Alicia was put into a witness protection program,

12:43out of fear that other family members would retaliate, and come after her, for bringing shame

12:48on her parents. In September 2011, due to Alicia Ahmed's statement, Iftika Ahmed, age 51, and his wife,

12:58Farzana, age 48, were charged with the murder of their eldest daughter, Shefilia Ahmed.

13:08Another one of Shefilia's sisters, named Mevish, had met up with a friend shortly after witnessing

13:14Shefilia's murder, and confessed to her what she had seen that night. Mevish also wrote letters to

13:20her friend, extensively detailing the events. The friend had kept a diary at the time, in which she

13:26wrote about her meeting with Mevish, and talked about how she learned that Shefilia was killed by her

13:31parents. Following Alicia, revealing to the police for Iftika and Farzana were responsible, Mevish's

13:39friend decided to go to the police herself, and give them all this information. She then became

13:45another key prosecution witness. The trial began on May the 21st 2012, at Chester Crown Court in

13:53Cheshire. Several documents proved vital, including photocopies of Mevish's friend's diary entries,

13:59as well as Mevish's letters, which collaborated Alicia's story. These were all used in evidence by the

14:06prosecution. With all the evidence presented, on July the 9th 2012, Farzana changed her witness

14:15statement, and implicated her husband in her daughter's murder. She had previously claimed to

14:20know nothing of Shefilia's disappearance, but now said that Iftika alone attacked her. She also stated

14:27that she had attempted to intervene, but was struck by her husband in the process. Farzana pleaded guilty

14:34to manslaughter. This plea, however, did not influence the jury, and on August the 12th 2012,

14:41Farzana and Iftika Ahmed were found guilty of the murder of their daughter, Shefilia, and they were both

14:49sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 25 years.

14:57Hello everyone, and thank you so much for listening. This case, being a 21st century case,

15:04isn't something that I normally do on this channel, but I had received many requests to cover this case,

15:10so I decided that I would do it. I'd be really interested to know your feedback, both on this case,

15:16and if I should ever occasionally do a more modern case. It will never be something I will do very

15:23often,

15:24but maybe once in a while. But I'd really appreciate to know what you think. And next week,

15:30I'll be back with another historical case, so hopefully I will see you all then.

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