A recovery truck driver has been found guilty of murdering his 19-year-old girlfriend by crushing her against a lamp post on his birthday – moments after she returned from visiting their baby in hospital. Mohammed Azim, 41, used his Mercedes Sprinter flatbed “as a weapon” to pin Lily Whitehouse against the lamppost in Oldbury, West Midlands, on November 5 last year, a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court concluded on Friday. The teenager suffered fatal chest injuries in the attack, which came just months after she gave birth to a premature baby fathered by another man.
Members of Ms Whitehouse’s family sobbed in the public gallery as the foreman returned the verdict by a majority of 10 to two after less than six hours of deliberation. Judge Mr Justice Murray addressed the defendant: “Mr Azim you have been found guilty of the murder of Lily Whitehouse. You are remanded into custody. You will be sentenced on Monday at 2pm. You may now go down.”
“Recovery driver Mohammed Azim, 41, guilty of murdering girlfriend Lily Whitehouse, 19, by crushing her against a lamp post.”
The trial heard that Ms Whitehouse had just been to visit her baby in a neonatal intensive care unit when she was crushed against a lamp post in Old Park Lane by Azim’s flatbed vehicle. After she was injured, Azim – who had been in an on-off relationship with the victim since she was 17 in 2023 – picked her up and put her in his truck while dialling 999 and claiming he had seen her hit by another vehicle that did not stop. He stopped the truck in nearby Park Street and placed her on the pavement before emergency services arrived. Paramedics and police found Azim’s story about a hit-and-run “strange”, and he was arrested on suspicion of murder.
In evidence, Azim admitted he lied about the hit-and-run because he panicked, and alleged he hit Ms Whitehouse accidentally as he tried to leave after dropping her off near her home. But prosecutors said his version was an “act” and that the pair were arguing on the night of her death. CCTV from a nearby school, which captured audio, showed Azim’s truck idling just out of view for about 16 minutes before the truck comes into view and Ms Whitehouse is seen walking quickly along the road on the driver’s side. “The defendant is driving the truck as if he was nudging or pushing her along the road,” prosecution counsel Rachel Brand KC told the court. “Lily started running, the vehicle is pursuing her at a low speed but, nevertheless, we say he was clearly using that large, heavy vehicle as a weapon.” As the truck goes out of view, a large bang is heard – the sound, the prosecution said, of the truck striking the lamp post.
Azim now awaits sentencing on Monday afternoon.