TV star jailed over murder plot
A young woman who smuggled a phone into a prison for an inmate who was plotting to murder the Kirklees mayor’s son-in-law has been jailed.
Farhana Ghafoor gave Aadil Malik the iPhone 6s during a visit in HMP Lindholme in Doncaster on the afternoon of October 19, 2019.
Leeds Crown Court heard the phone, which she had set up with a fake Apple ID, was exchanged for another iPhone, which Aadil Malik then used to coordinate the shooting of Hamza Hussain.
The target’s friend
Mohammed Hussain was also hit by a bullet during the shooting in Liversedge on the evening of on November 4 that year.
Aadil Malik was jailed alongside eight others last week after being convicted of conspiracy to murder. He was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 18 years.
The jury were unable to reach a verdict on charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to Ghafoor, but found her guilty of conveying a list B prohibited article into/out of a prison. The prosecution later offered no evidence to her more serious charges.
The 21-year-old, of West View, Batley, was jailed for a year. During the trial, Ghafoor denied smuggling the phone into the prison and even said it would be impossible to smuggle an iPhone 6s in. It was also suggested during the trial that a prison nurse had smuggled the phone in.
Ghafoor also said she was in contact with other prisoners at that time. As a Muslim teenager,
Ghafoor was featured in Channel 4’s 2017 documentary White Kid Brown Kid, which was about racial integration in Dewsbury.
The director Luned Fletcher provided the court with a character reference. Mrs Fletcher described Ghafoor as living a ‘sheltered’ life and having little contact outside her family, including with the opposite sex. Abbas
Lakha QC, mitigating, said Aadil Malik had a malign influence over Ghafoor and used her as a ‘dispensable’ ‘means to an end.’
Sentencing, Judge Tom Bayliss QC said the harm caused ‘could hardly be greater’ and Ghafoor had not shown an ‘iota of remorse.’
He said a deterrent sentence was necessary despite her ‘impeccable character.’