By Eric King-
An extradited illegal immigrant from Bangladesh with a history of rape and violence against his wife has been jailed for life at the Old Bailey. He must serve a minimum of 40 years.
Mohammed Abdul Shakur, 46, killed 26-year-old Juli Begum and their children Thanha, six, and Anika, five, leaving them in a bed at their home in Nelson Street, East Ham, on New Year’s Day 2007. He is believed to his killed his wife because she didn’t progress his right to remain in the Uk.
His tragic wife Juli Begum did not trust him to stay with her and told friends he did not like his children because they were girls and he wanted boys, the Old Bailey heard,
Juli told her sister, Sheli Begum, that her husband did not like their children because they were girls and he wanted boys.
Shakur, who was 33 was found guilty of three counts of murder on October 31 after a 10-day trial at the Old Bailey. At his sentencing at the Old Bailey on Thursday, after the courts heard he spent 2,382 days in custody in India and the UK awaiting trial, his minimum sentence of 40 years for each murder was reduced by six years, six months and six days.
Jili Belgum and her two tragic daughters Thanha and Annika Image: Met Police
Sentencing Shakhur, Judge Richard Marks QC,said: “It is difficult to find words which adequately convey the sense of outrage that would inevitably be felt by anybody listening to the facts of this case.
“This was a vicious, sustained attack on two little girls and on your wife.”
He added that weighing just over six stone Juli was no match for a well built, six foot tall Shakur.
He said: “It’s difficult to imagine three more vulnerable and defenseless victims.
“In the immediate aftermath of the killings you thought only of yourself. You told a tissue of lies as you planned your escape, not having shown one iota of remorse for what you did.”
TENSION
Juli left Shakur and moved to Nelson Street with her mother Karful Nessa in December 2003,
Juli’s sister, Sheli, raised the alarm on January 10, 2007, telling police she was concerned she hadn’t seen her sister and nieces since December 31, 2006.
Police searched the Nelson Street home after they made a forced entry only to be horrified by what they saw. Police officer, Pc Bates saw a bed and a person’s outline beneath the covers. After he used his baton to pull them back revealing Juli lying on her back he found the body of 4ft 8in Ms Begum beneath a bedcover with Anika laid across her and Thanha nearby.
Anika, five, had been strangled with a white sock after being “stunned” by a punch or slap to the face, while her six-year-old sister suffered severe blows to the face that fractured her skull. Their mother was believed to have been smothered with a soft pillow or cushion.
An NSPCC spokesman said after sentencing: “These were particularly brutal and horrifying actions which took the lives of a mum and her two young children.
“Shakur may have thought he could continue to evade justice but today, thankfully, he has been handed a long sentence behind bars.”