She thought she was going home after seeing her tiny baby, but the person beside her carried a secret rage that didn’t let her live.
Mohammed Azim (Image: West Midlands Police/PA Wire)
A jealous boyfriend who murdered his girlfriend by crushing her against a lamppost after she had visited her baby by another man in hospital, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years. Mohammed Azim used his Mercedes Sprinter truck as a weapon to pin 19-year-old Lily Whitehouse against a lamppost during an argument on his 41st birthday on November 5 last year, just months after she gave birth to a premature baby who was being cared for in intensive care. Jurors took less than six hours to find Mohammed Azim guilty by a majority of 10 to two of murder on Friday after a two-week trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Passing sentence 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.
“Although Lily was not particularly vulnerable… she was a psychologically vulnerable young woman given her troubled background.
Undated family handout photo issued by West Midlands Police of Lily Whitehouse who is believed to ha (Image: PA)
“She was very needy and dependent on you as you well knew.”
He added: “It must have been apparent at the moment you drove your heavy truck at her, there was a substantial risk you could kill her by doing so.
“I cannot be sure you formed an intention to kill Lily when you hit her with your truck.
“I sentence on a basis that you intention was to cause her really serious harm.”
The trial heard that Azim collected Ms Whitehouse from the bus stop in his recovery truck after she had spent the evening visiting her newborn baby in the neonatal intensive care unit at Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley.
However, instead of driving her to her home in Oldbury, he drove past the address and drove to a different location on Old Park Lane, Dudley where she managed to escape the vehicle.
Undated handout screen grab from CCTV footage issued by West Midlands Police of Mohammed Azim trying (Image: West Midlands Police/PA Wire)
But the killer was captured on CCTV pursuing her in his vehicle before he ruthlessly rammed into her at speed. After causing catastrophic injuries, Azim then hauled the dying teen into his cab and then called 999, falsely claiming she had been hit by a passing vehicle. Azim then drove to Park Street where he removed her from the cab and placed her on the pavement while still on the call to emergency services.
Lily leaving the maternity ward (Image: West Midlands Police/PA Wire)
Building the case
The Crown Prosecution Service worked closely with West Midlands Police to build a strong case using multiple strands of evidence.
CCTV footage with audio from a primary school on Old Park Lane was the most significant evidence. It showed the vehicle running idle for 16 minutes before Ms Whitehouse got out. She is then seen walking before beginning to run as Azim pursues her in his Mercedes Sprinter vehicle. As the vehicle is seen to move out of camera view, a loud bang can be heard which the CPS identified as the sound of the vehicle crushing Ms Whitehouse against a lamppost.
Because Azim moved Miss Whitehouse’s body to Park Street and lied to emergency services about what had happened, time was lost during which potentially vital evidence may have been destroyed. The prosecution was therefore built by painstakingly piecing together the surrounding circumstances, including the CCTV footage, the 999 call and body-worn police camera footage of the defendant’s false account, and findings of a Home Office pathologist whose post-mortem examination confirmed that Miss Whitehouse’s injuries were consistent with being struck by a vehicle.
The CPS proved that the medical evidence and CCTV were entirely inconsistent with the defendant’s claim that Ms Whitehouse had been killed in a hit and run.
Mohammed Azim in his Mercedes (Image: West Midlands Police/PA Wire)
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.
“This case presented real challenges. The defendant moved the victim’s body and concealed the location of the killing, resulting in lost time and potentially destroyed evidence.
“Despite this, the prosecution was able to present multiple strands of evidence including CCTV footage, medical findings, and the defendant’s own false statements, to build a coherent case that ruled out any suggestion of accidental death.
“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.
“The Crown Prosecution Service will continue to work closely with the police to ensure that those who commit serious offences against women and girls are brought to justice, no matter how complex the circumstances.”
