A violent husband who forced his expectant wife off Edinburgh’s Arthur’s Seat only days before she intended to leave him was sentenced to life in prison.
In September 2021, Fawziyah Javed, 31, and their unborn child were assassinated near the landmark in the Scottish capital by Kashif Anwar, 29.
Ms. Javed, an employment lawyer who was around 17 weeks pregnant when she fell 50 feet, used her final words to accuse Anwar of pushing her in front of another walker.
Daniyah Rafique, 24, managed to reach her as she lay dying on the hillside and was told: ‘Don’t let my husband near me, he pushed me.’
PC Rhiannon Clutton, 35, who rushed to the scene, said she was told by Ms Javed her husband pushed her because she ‘told him I wanted to end (the marriage)’.
Anwar, from Leeds, was convicted of murder following a week-long trial at the city’s High Court.
The judge, Lord Beckett, handed him a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years.
As he was led down to the cells, one of Ms Javed’s relatives screamed from the public gallery: ‘Die, you bastard.’
Jurors were visibly upset after the result, some crying, and the judge thanked them for the ‘admirable way’ they performed their duties.
In a statement read on behalf of the Javed family outside court, they said: ‘Our life sentence began the day that our daughter was brutally murdered.
‘Whilst we welcome the verdict, this outcome does not feel like justice when compared to what we have lost.’
Ms Javed’s mother, Nighat Yasmin Javed, said: ‘There are just no words to describe the depth of pain and grief.
‘There’s no words in the English dictionary that go deep enough.’
She had told jurors her daughter first met Anwar at an opticians in Leeds city centre, near their home in Pudsey, where he worked as an optical assistant.
The couple had an Islamic wedding on December 25, 2020, but the court concerns were raised within months.
Mrs Javed told advocate depute Alex Prentice KC she was ‘very worried’ about her daughter, and revealed they had a secret code word she could use if she was ever unsafe.
She said: ‘I said if you feel that you are in danger, just text me “I like cream cakes”, and I will contact the police.’
Mrs Javed explained this was because of the ‘abuse, the violence, the aggression, and coercive control’ in the relationship.
She said her daughter’s calls and texts were monitored by Anwar, and that between three or four months after the wedding her daughter wanted out of the marriage.
Mrs Javed told the jury: ‘The accused was being abusive, controlling, manipulative, aggressive and violent towards her. She didn’t want to stay in a marriage like that, she wanted to leave.’
The court heard how a midwife spoke to Ms Javed after becoming worried about the way Anwar spoke to her at Leeds General Infirmary weeks before the murder.
Elizabeth Petty, 41, who was working on the L44 ward that evening, said a patient told her Ms Javed was told: ‘If you died during childbirth that would be okay. I would be free.’
The midwife told the jury that when asked if that was what was said, Ms Javed had confirmed it was, and that she appeared ‘scared’ and ‘upset’.
A week later, on August 30, 2021, a Walima– a Muslim marriage celebration event – was held for the couple.
One of the guests, Lubna Qasim, told jurors Anwar was ‘really keen on visiting Arthur’s Seat.
But Ms Qasim said her friend Ms Javed was scared of heights and had looked her straight in the eyes and replied: ‘I’m not so sure.’
The couple checked into a hotel in Edinburgh the following day.
They were due to return to Yorkshire on September 4, which would have been Ms Javed’s 32nd birthday.
But jurors heard she planned not to return to Anwar’s home but go to her parents’ house and contact police to retrieve her belongings.
She was pushed to her death from the landmark in Holyrood Park on September 2.
CCTV showed the couple walking arm-in-arm through Waverley railway station towards Arthur’s Seat.
A selfie of the pair was taken on Ms Javed’s phone at about 8.30pm – the last picture of her alive.
Firefighter Sean Stratford was one of the emergency responders dispatched to the scene just after 9pm.
He said he was approached by a man, who he could not identify: ‘He said that he stood up to take a selfie, he slipped and bumped her and she had fallen.
‘She was not in a very good state at all.’ Ms Javed was declared dead on the hillside at 10.18pm.
In the early hours of the next morning, PC Sean Henderson, 37, said Anwar was told of the news.
He told jurors: ‘There wasn’t much of a reaction, in my opinion, he didn’t say much to it and didn’t have any obvious physical reaction.’
Anwar told PC Henderson: ‘I know how this looks. We had our problems as a couple, but … ”
The court was told Anwar never finished what he was saying as more officers entered the room and he was arrested on suspicion of murder.
PC Henderson told the court: ‘From start to near finish, he was very calm and composed throughout. I was actually struck how calm his demeanour was throughout.’
Detective Constable Steven Cavallero told the court when Anwar was in custody he asked: ‘How many years do you think I will get? Double figures? Maybe 15 to 20 years you reckon?