Mohammed Azim, 41, has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years for the murder of his 19-year-old girlfriend, Lily Whitehouse. Azim used his Mercedes Sprinter truck to crush her against a lamppost on his birthday, November 5 last year, just months after she gave birth to a premature baby who remained in intensive care.
Details of the murder
Azim collected Ms Whitehouse from a bus stop after she had visited her newborn at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley. Instead of taking her home to Oldbury, he drove past her address and stopped at Old Park Lane, Dudley. Ms Whitehouse managed to escape the vehicle, but Azim pursued her in his truck and rammed into her at speed, causing catastrophic injuries. He then loaded her dying body into his cab and called 999, falsely claiming she had been hit by a passing vehicle. He later moved her to Park Street and placed her on the pavement.
CCTV footage from a primary school showed the vehicle idling for 16 minutes before Ms Whitehouse got out and began running, with Azim pursuing in the Mercedes Sprinter. A loud bang was heard as the vehicle crushed her against a lamppost.
Court proceedings
After a two-week trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court, jurors took less than six hours to find Azim guilty of murder by a majority of 10 to 2. Sentencing on Monday, Judge Mr Justice Murray said: “Your decision to kill Lily was spontaneous, but you would have been aware she had a five-week-old baby still in hospital. The baby has lost her mother forever at the very beginning of her life.” He added that Ms Whitehouse was “psychologically vulnerable” and “needy and dependent” on Azim, which he knew.
The judge stated he could not be sure Azim intended to kill, but sentenced on the basis that he intended to cause really serious harm.
Prosecution case
Robert Skinner from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “This was a deliberate, brutal and calculated attack in which Mohammed Azim used a vehicle as a weapon to kill his teenage girlfriend. No one directly witnessed the murder, and Azim went to considerable lengths to cover his tracks and claim Lily had been a victim of a hit-and-run, yet the jury, after carefully considering the evidence, held him accountable for his actions.”
The prosecution built the case using CCTV, the 999 call, body-worn police camera footage, and post-mortem findings that confirmed Ms Whitehouse's injuries were consistent with being struck by a vehicle. Azim's false account was contradicted by medical evidence and CCTV.
Skinner added: “This case sends a clear message that violence, particularly in the context of relationships, will be robustly prosecuted, and that attempts to mislead emergency services and investigators will not succeed. Our thoughts are with Ms Whitehouse’s family.”
