Jason Pitter KC and Tom Storey prosecute Defendant in relation to murder and dumping of his niece
The Defendant was convicted of the disappearance, murder and attempted disposal of the body of his 20 year old niece in June 2022. He had dumped and concealed her body in wasteland amongst refuse in the industrial area of Bradford. The case was complicated by the fact that by the time her body was discovered it was decomposed to the extent that a cause of death could not be identified.
The case received widespread national publicity because the Deceased had been removed from her home address under a Forced Marriage Protection Order to reside at an address with her mother and another uncle as a result of her father’s alleged attempts to force her to marry. The Defendant had asserted that his niece had in fact been killed by her father as a so called “honour based killing” as revenge for her refusal to marry and that he had been recruited to dispose of her body.
The Defendant was convicted following his trial and was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 25 years.
The case involved sensitive cultural issues in relation to dishonour based killings affecting the family and wider community and was reported in the national media:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-64914696
