A loud bang captured by CCTV from a nearby school is the sound prosecutors say was Mohammed Azim crushing his 19-year-old girlfriend against a lamppost with his Mercedes Sprinter truck on Bonfire Night – his 41st birthday.
Azim, a recovery truck driver from Tipton, denies murdering Lily Whitehouse in Old Park Lane, Oldbury, last November. The court heard that Ms Whitehouse, who weighed less than 7½ stone and stood 5ft 3in, had just visited her newborn baby – fathered by another man – in the neonatal intensive care unit at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley.
“Mohammed Azim, 41, allegedly crushed his 19-year-old girlfriend Lily Whitehouse against a lamppost with his truck on his birthday.”
Azim, who had been in an on-off relationship with Ms Whitehouse since 2023, picked her up from a bus stop. But instead of taking her to her home in Amber Drive, he drove past and onto Old Park Lane. Prosecution counsel Rachel Brand KC told Wolverhampton Crown Court: “One of the things you will have to consider is why the defendant did that – why did he drive past if he was giving her a lift home, why not drop her off? We say the likelihood is the two were having an argument.”
CCTV audio captured the truck idling for about 16 minutes before 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,” Ms Brand said. “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 moved out of camera view, a “large bang” was heard. The prosecution believes she was crushed against a lamppost, possibly with the driver’s door open. A Home Office pathologist found injuries predominantly to her right side while upright: a broken upper arm, fractured ribs, a lacerated liver and traumatic chest injuries that caused “severe bleeding” and proved fatal.
Azim, who wore a navy suit and pale blue shirt and was assisted by a Mirpuri interpreter though he speaks “reasonably good” English, showed no reaction in the dock as members of Ms Whitehouse’s family wiped tears in the public gallery. The trial continues.