A recovery truck driver has been found guilty of murdering his girlfriend by crushing her against a lamppost during an argument on his birthday, shortly after she had visited her baby in hospital.
Mohammed Azim, 41, denied using his truck as a weapon to kill 19-year-old Lily Whitehouse on November 5 last year, just months after she gave birth to a premature baby fathered by another man. However, a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court found him guilty on Friday.
Judge Mr Justice Murray told Azim, of Tividale Road in Tipton, that he would be sentenced on Monday afternoon after the jury returned a majority verdict of 10 to two after less than six hours of deliberation. Members of Ms Whitehouse's family in the public gallery sobbed as the verdict was read.
Addressing the defendant, who put his hands to his face in the dock, Mr Justice Murray said: "Mr Azim, you have been found guilty of the murder of Lily Whitehouse. You are remanded into custody. You will be sentenced on Monday at 2pm. You may now go down."
The trial heard that Ms Whitehouse, who had just visited her baby in a neonatal intensive care unit, was crushed against a lamppost in Old Park Lane, Oldbury, by Azim's flatbed Mercedes Sprinter vehicle, causing fatal chest injuries.
After Ms Whitehouse was injured, Azim, who had an on-off relationship with the victim since she was 17 in 2023, picked her up and placed her in his truck while dialling 999 and claiming he had seen her hit by another vehicle that did not stop. He stopped the truck in nearby Park Street and put her on the pavement before emergency services arrived. Paramedics and police found Azim's story about a hit-and-run "strange", leading to his arrest on suspicion of murder.
In his evidence, Azim admitted lying about the hit-and-run because he panicked and alleged that he hit Ms Whitehouse accidentally as he tried to leave after dropping her off near her home.
Prosecutors claimed Azim's version of events was an "act" and that the pair were arguing on the night of her death. CCTV from a nearby school captured audio of Azim's recovery truck idling out of view for about 16 minutes before the truck came into view and Ms Whitehouse was seen walking quickly along the road on the driver's side.
"The defendant is driving the truck as if he was nudging or pushing her along the road," prosecution counsel Rachel Brand KC told the court. "Lily started running, the vehicle is pursuing her at a low speed but, nevertheless, we say he was clearly using that large, heavy vehicle as a weapon." As the truck went out of view, a loud bang was heard, which the prosecution said was the truck striking a lamppost.
A Home Office pathologist found that Ms Whitehouse suffered injuries predominantly to her right side while in an upright position, including a broken upper arm, fractured ribs, a laceration to her liver, and traumatic chest injuries that caused severe bleeding and led to her death.
During the trial, Ms Whitehouse's aunt, Melissa Wheeler, told the jury that her niece met Azim after exchanging numbers in West Bromwich High Street and began a relationship. Ms Wheeler agreed that the victim was "besotted" with Azim, but the pair fought frequently, and Azim would sometimes block Ms Whitehouse when she tried to speak to him. She said Azim was not the father of Ms Whitehouse's baby and was "not happy" about her pregnancy, so she would hide her bump with long clothing when visiting him. Ms Wheeler also said her niece went into labour 10 weeks early after falling to the ground when Azim "sped off" in his vehicle.
Libby Higgs, a friend of the victim, told the jury that Ms Whitehouse confided that Azim would say "vile" things to her and would punch her, which he claimed was playfighting. In his evidence, Azim denied ever being violent to Ms Whitehouse and said he was the only person who supported her after she fell out with her family.
Explaining his version of events, Azim said he picked her up after she got off a bus from Russells Hall Hospital, where she had been visiting her baby, and was going to drop her home in Amber Drive, Oldbury. Ms Whitehouse allegedly asked him to sit with her for 10 minutes before going home, so he pulled up in Old Park Lane because it was wider for his van, and they chatted and scrolled on their phones. He said they did not argue, and Ms Whitehouse simply did not want to go home, asking if she could stay with him. Azim said he told her no because he was tired and had to get up early for work, but she tried to stop him by going in front of the van. He started driving slowly to the left to go around her but had to swerve back to the right due to parked cars.
"I hear a bang at the back. It could have been Lily jumping on the truck. I felt something bump the back," Azim told the jury. "I feel the back tyres, like something come under the tyre or something drop under the tyre. I slammed the brake and straight away stopped. I looked back and saw Lily on the floor in the middle of the road."
The court heard that Azim came to the UK from Pakistan in 2001 around the age of 14, attended college, and worked in takeaway restaurants to learn English. He was married in 2007 but had been single and living alone since his marriage ended in 2015. He told the jury that Ms Whitehouse relied on him for support and that she did not have many friends, so she would text and call him often while he was working.
