Every third day, in our #EveryThreeDays campaign, I write about a woman killed by a man.
Previously in May, we remembered Suzanne Pilley, Raheela Shariff, Louise Smith, Claire Parry, Natalie Hemming, Jessica Patel, Melissa Belshaw, Joanne Hamer, Sophie Cavanagh and Andra Hilitanu.
Today June 1st, we remember Sohbia Khan, 37 who her short term partner murdered at their shared home in Pear Tree Crescent, Normanton, Derby in 2017.
Sohbia came from Bradford and had worked as a teacher in an after school club but was lulled to Normanton by Atual Mustafa, who was at the time of Sohbia’s murder was aged 35.
Mustafa had previously been discharged from secure psychiatric care – where he had been placed in 2009 for attacking, torturing and setting fire to another woman.
Giving details of the Sohbia’s death to Assistant Coroner Rachel Syed, Detective Constable Wayne Neal said:
“The circumstances are that at 9.50pm on Saturday, May 27, a call came to the police from a member of the public to report an incident at an address at Pear Tree Crescent.
“Police attended that location at 1.30 am where they discovered an adult female at the address. Paramedics attended the address and death was recorded by paramedics at 2.08 am”.
Mustafa was immediately under suspicion and charged with Sohbia’s murder shortly afterwards.
His subsequent trial started in April 2018 where the court heard harrowing evidence. Mustafa pleaded not guilty to Sohbia’s murder, but a jury took just 45 minutes to return a guilty verdict. He was jailed for life with a minimum term applied of 32 years.
Senior investigating officer DCI Emlyn Richards said after the trial:
“Mustafa never accepted any responsibility or provided an account of what happened to Sohbia. On the evening of the murder, he booked a plane ticket from Manchester to Islamabad so he clearly believed fleeing the country was an option for him to avoid taking responsibility for his actions.
“His narcissistic and sadistic grooming of Sohbia led her to Derby and within weeks of arriving, she had been tortured over several days and brutally murdered.
“This included being branded with an iron on three separate sites of her body, being punched, kicked and hit with weapons.”
Tributes from former work colleagues included one from Najma Asghar saying:
“Sohbia was such an amazing teacher, all the children were very fond of her. She nurtured them like a mother does, so gentle and sweet. She was a truly inspirational person who influenced and taught the children really well.”
One innocent loving woman.
One sadistic evil man.
Sobhia Tabasim Khan 1980 – 2017
#EveryThreeDays
https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/15323280.bradford-woman-sobhia-khan-37-was-in-relationship-with-man-accused-of-her-murder-in-derby-inquest-told/
https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/atual-mustafa-derby-killer-sohbia-1528683
https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/khan-family-murder-derby-anger-1520593
