75-year-old ‘mastermind’ in deadly robbery gets life
LONDON — A 75-year-old man will spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced Friday in the murder of a police officer shot dead during an armed robbery in northern England nearly two decades ago.
Piran Ditta Khan was convicted in April, as he had fled the country to Pakistan soon after the murder of Sharon Beshenivsky.
He was extradited to the U.K. last year.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard sentenced him in Leeds Crown Court to life imprisonment.
He must serve a minimum term of 40 years in prison.
“You will inevitably spend the remainder of your life in custody, but that is a consequence of sentencing a man of your age for a crime of this particular gravity,” he said. “You have had your younger and healthier years at liberty because you chose to leave the country when you feared you were about to be arrested.”
Though Khan stayed in the lookout car during the robbery at the family-run Universal Express travel agents in the city of Bradford in November 2005, prosecutors argued that he was the “mastermind” behind the robbery as he organized it and purchased the weapons.
Police officers in Britain don’t carry guns on routine patrols.
“Even though he did not fire the fatal shot, his actions stole from Sharon and those who knew her a lifetime together, and as he is sentenced today our thoughts remain with her family and loved ones,” said specialist prosecutor David Holderness.
Beshenivsky was 38 years old and only nine months into the job when she responded to an alert about the robbery.
She was shot dead at point-blank range by one of the three men who carried out the robbery.
Her colleague, Teresa Milburn, survived after being shot in the chest.