The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 7 August 2019 *** 9
News
Fugitive guilty
of killing eight
in petrol-bomb
attack on home
By Martin Evans
CRIME CORRESPONDENT
A MAN who went on the run for years
after petrol-bombing a family home
during a feud has been found guilty of
the murders of eight people including
five children.
Shahid Mohammed, 37, was con-
victed of starting the blaze that killed
eight members of the Chisti family in
Birkby, Huddersfield, in 2002.
Suspect Mohammed fled to Pakistan
before he could be charged. He was fi-
nally arrested in Rawalpindi in 2015
and was extradited to the UK.
Leeds Crown Court heard Moham-
med had become angry that his sister
Shahida had become involved in a rela-
tionship with a man of whom he did
not approve and accused a member of
the Chisti family of helping the couple
maintain the relationship before
launching the attack on May 12 2002.
In July 2003, Shakie Shazad and
Nazar Hussain were convicted of man-
slaughter, while Shaied Iqbal was con-
victed of eight counts of murder.
At his trial at Leeds Crown Court,
Mohammed denied knowing about the
plot, claiming he had believed the plan
was just to petrol-bomb a car.
But the jury was told that he had
been vigorously pursuing a grudge
against Mohammed Ateeq-ur-Rehman,
who was a member of the Chisti family.
Those who died were Nafeesa Aziz,
35, and her daughters Tayyaba Batool,
13, Rabiah Batool, 10, Ateeqa Nawaz,
five, Aneesa Nawaz, two, and six-
month-old Najeebah Nawaz. Ateeq,
Aziz’s 18-year-old brother, also died in
the fire and their mother, Zaib-un-Nisa,
54, died a week later in hospital. Mo-
hammed, found guilty of eight counts
of murder and one of conspiracy to
commit arson, will be sentenced today.
Soldiers lack faith in complaints
system that is ‘not fit for purpose’
By Daily Telegraph Reporter
MILITARY personnel are being put un-
der pressure to withdraw bullying
complaints and the system that cur-
rently deals with them is “not fit for
purpose”, according to MPs.
The Commons defence select com-
mittee said soldiers had “little faith” in
the complaints procedure because the
system was “unacceptably slow”.
Allegations of personnel being pres-
sured to withdraw complaints were
raised, but the committee said an “ab-
sence of proper records” meant it was
unable assess the scale of the problem.
The concerns were raised in the lat-
est report from the committee, which
found that neither the individual
Armed Forces nor the Service Com-
plaints Ombudsman for the Armed
Forces (SCOAF) – which aims to pro-
vide independent oversight – have es-
tablished an effective and efficient
system for handling grievances.
The MPs recommended that the
Ministry of Defence examine how to
simplify, speed up and make more effi-
cient the processes of the individual
services and SCOAF.
It added that a reassessment of the
resources required for SCOAF should
be conducted and the department
should work with the services to assessstaffing and training requirements for
complaint handling.
The committee’s latest report, Fair-
ness Without Fear: The Work of the
Service Complaints Ombudsman, said:
“The negative culture towards com-
plaints within the services has discour-
aged serving personnel from coming
forward and making a complaint.”
It said the target of resolving 90% ofservice complaints within 24 weeks
has not been achieved.
The report added: “It is also a serious
concern that complaints from BAME
(black and minority ethnic) and female
service personnel are disproportion-
ately high, compared with their repre-
sentation within the Armed Forces: in
particular, they are far more likely to
complain about bullying, harassment
and discrimination.
“We seriously doubt that the current
service complaints system is fit for pur-
pose.
“Service personnel have little faith
in it, with surveys indicating that many
personnel choose not to make a com-
plaint – in some cases because of wor-
ries about the impact on their future
careers.”
Julian Lewis, the Conservative MP
who chairs the defence committee,
said: “It is essential that service person-
nel have a fair, effective and efficient
complaints system to deal with valid
grievances.”Transport minister
steams over guard’s
refusal to hold train
By Victoria WardA NEWLY elected transport minister
hit out yesterday after a guard “smirked
and ignored” him as he ran for a train,
allowing it to go without him.
Tory MP George Freeman com-
plained on Twitter that he was stranded
for an hour after failing to board the
train. He said he and four other passen-
gers were running to catch the 9.
from Cambridge to Attleborough after
a London connection was delayed.
But instead of holding the train for a
few seconds to allow them to board,
the guard allegedly “waved it off ”.
“Not good @GreaterAnglia,” he
wrote. “You knew the connecting train
was late. Your guard could see us run-
ning... [and] closed the doors, waved
off the train, leaving us stranded for an
hour, then smirked & ignored us.”
Greater Anglia responded by insist-
ing that it could not hold services when
other operators were late, only to later
apologise after Mr Freeman refused to
back down, accepting that there
“should have been some discretion
from the guard if that was the case”.
The MP was appointed as a transport
minister by Boris Johnson last month.Boy ‘thrown’ off Tate balcony broke back
By Martin Evans
CRIME CORRESPONDENT
THE six-year-old boy “thrown” from
the 10th floor of a London art gallery
suffered a broken spine, legs and arms
and is bleeding on the brain, it was
revealed yesterday, as a teenager
appeared in court charged with at-
tempted murder.
The 17-year-old, who cannot be iden-
tified because of his age, was escorted
into Bromley magistrates’ court after
being held since the incident at Tate
Modern on Sunday.
The suspect, who had a beard and
was wearing a grey jumper and grey
jogging bottoms, spoke only to con-
firm his name, age and that his nation-
ality was British, during the
five-minute hearing.
Flanked by two dock guards, he ap-
peared confused and bewildered asthe proceedings progressed. The
court was told that the victim, who is
French but cannot be named for legal
reasons, was visiting London with his
family on holiday.
He remains in a critical but stable
condition in hospital.
Police have said his injuries are no
longer life-threatening and his parents
continue to be supported by specially
trained officers.
Sian Morgan, prosecuting, said the
child had been visiting the Tate Mod-
ern gallery on London’s south bank of
the Thames with his parents on Sun-day afternoon when the incident took
place.
The accused was apprehended by
members of the public who witnessed
the incident.
Scotland Yard said there was no link
between the suspect and the victim.
The teenager was remanded into
youth custody and will next appear be-
fore the Old Bailey tomorrow when he
could enter a plea. A further hearing is
due to take place on Aug 22.
David Armitage, the chairman of
the magistrates, said: “You have heard
what’s been said and you are to be re-manded to youth detention accommo-
dation until Thursday Aug 8 when you
appear next at the Central Criminal
Court in London.
“Until then you will be the responsi-
bility of Hammersmith and Fulham
borough.”
The incident was witnessed by
scores of people who were on the Ta-
te’s popular viewing platform.
Officers were called to the gallery at
around 2.40pm following reports that
a child had fallen 100ft from the 10th
floor on to the 5th floor roof.
The child was treated at the scenebefore being flown to hospital by Lon-
don’s Air Ambulance.
Olga Malehevska was on the view-
ing platform with her four-year-old
son when the alleged incident took
place and described what happened as
“absolutely terrifying”.
She said she saw a woman crying,
shaking and shouting: “Oh my son,
my son.”
The Tate Modern was the UK’s most
popular tourist attraction in 2018 after
being visited 5.9 million times, accord-
ing to the Association of Leading Visi-
tor Attractions.Teenager charged with
attempting to murder
six-year-old will appear at
the Old Bailey tomorrow
Green-eyed monsters Graeme Watson, 59, from Ainthorpe, N Yorks, with two gooseberries – including his world record-winner, left, at the annual show of
the Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Society. It weighed in, on an apothecary’s scale, at 36 drams and 12 grains, or 64.56g, beating the old record of 64.49g.OWEN HUMPHREYS/PA WIREBack chat
An easyJet
passenger
sitting on a
backless
seat set off a
Twitter row
when the
firm asked
for removal
of the photo
before it
would
investigate,
as travel in
the seat
would not
have been
permitted.
Critics said
there were
safety issues
regardless of
whether the
picture was
“posed”.MATTHEW HARRISNews
‘It is essential that service
personnel have a fair,
effective and efficient
complaints system’РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS