Chilling CCTV footage shows pregnant wife's final moments as husband is jailed for pushing her off Arthur's Seat
6 April 2023, 14:33 | Updated: 6 April 2023, 21:47
Chilling CCTV footage has emerged showing a pregnant woman being led to her death by her abusive husband as he's jailed for life for her murder after pushing her off Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh.
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Kashif Anwar, 29, was convicted at a trial at the High Court in the Scottish capital on Thursday.
The shocking footage was shot shortly before Fawziyah Javed, 31, was pushed off the Scottish landmark, falling 50ft to her death.
Javed suffered multiple blunt force injuries and later died along with her unborn baby. She was 17 weeks pregnant when she was killed in September 2021.
She used her dying words to accuse Anwar, having managed to reach a stranger who was at the landmark.
"Don't let my husband near me, he pushed me," she told 24-year-old Daniyah Rafique, then later telling a police officer Anwar did it because she said she wanted to end the marriage.
Anwar, from Leeds, denied the murder charge but jurors found him guilty after a trial that lasted a week.
Judge Lord Beckett, imposing a mandatory life sentence with a minimum of 20 years, said Ms Javed was "a very special person" who was willing to trust she was safe when they walked up the landmark.
A family member of Ms Javed's shouted "die, you bastard" as he was handcuffed and taken to the cells, while jurors cried as the judge thanked them for their service.
The trial heard how Ms Javed's mother, Nighat Yamin Javed, worried about abuse since their marriage in December 2020.
"I said if you feel that you are in danger, just text me 'I feel like cream cakes', and I will contact the police," she told the court.
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She described "abuse, the violence, the aggression, and coercive control" in the relationship, and said Anwar once took £12,000 from her daughter's bank account as she slept.
He monitored her calls and texts, Mrs Javed said.
Ms Javed wanted a divorce about three or four months into the marriage, her mother said. She had called a legal firm for advice about ending the marriage.
The couple travelled to Edinburgh ahead of Ms Javed's birthday celebrations. However, Ms Javed said she would not go back to Leeds but instead ask West Yorkshire Police to get her belongings.
A patient overheard Anwar tell Ms Javed if she died in childbirth "that would be okay... I would be free" during a hospital visit, leaving her "scared" and "upset".
Francesca Cooper, 34, a teacher in the next bed at Leeds General Infirmary in August 2021, told the court: "I could hear him repeatedly call her a bitch, repeatedly saying he should never have married her, wishing he never married her, and if one of them died during childbirth that would be good because they would be free from one another."
The couple went on a trip to Loch Ness and booked afternoon tea at a hotel in Edinburgh on September 3, and would then celebrate Ms Javed's birthday after they got back to Yorkshire the next day, the trial heard fro, Anwar's defence lawyer.
But Mrs Javed said her family planned to celebrate way from Anwar, and, unlike Anwar's claim, had not intended to go to Scotland to patch things up, but instead put on a front to "do what she had to do and leave the accused".
James Duncan, 25, who had been walking up Arthur's Seat on the evening of September 2 said he heard a "couple of screams", a male and a female.
Anwar told him his wife had fallen from the landmark and wanted him to call 999 for an ambulance.
Police Scotland's Detective Inspector Bob Williamson said: "This has been an incredibly difficult and traumatic time for Fawziyah's family who are understandably devastated by her death.
"Fawziyah was much loved and had her life ahead of her with a new baby on the way. This was all cruelly taken from her and her unborn child at the hands of her own husband - someone who should have loved and protected her.
"Anwar's actions were incomprehensible and as an investigation team, we welcome today's verdict.
"I sincerely hope that the fact that he has now been found guilty will afford Fawziyah's family and friends some sense of justice."
