Warehouse worker admits killing his student girlfriend, 21, then stuffing her body in a suitcase

An obsessed killer followed a woman from Pakistan to the UK and suffocated her with a Covid facemask, a court heard.

Muhammad Arslan, 27, crammed the body of Hina Bashir, 21, into a suitcase and dumped it in bushes near an industrial estate where he was working as a delivery driver.

Arslan had followed the business management student from their home village in Pakistan after becoming obsessed with her when she was a teenager, the Old Bailey heard.

He told friends she was his fiancé even though she was seeing other men and sent her messages saying she was his ‘life’, jurors were told.

Arslan thrust the facemask so deep in her mouth at his home in Ilford that Miss Bashir could not breathe.

He had asked a flatmate who worked as a taxi driver to take him to the industrial site saying he had to ‘drop something off for a friend.’

Arslan has admitted manslaughter but denies murder claiming he did not intend to kill her.

He also denies perverting the course of justice by disposing of the body.

The court heard Miss Bashir went to Arslan’s home in Natal Road, Ilford, on July 11 last year had stayed there for one night when moving accommodation and left some belongings.

Prosecutor Gareth Patterson, KC, said: ‘She went accompanied by a friend.

‘She entered the house in which the defendant lived, but did not come back out and her friend had to leave without her.

‘Hina Bashir never left that house alive.

‘The next morning the defendant set off from his house, dragging behind him a suitcase. A case that contained Hina Bashir’s dead body.

‘He got a lift from a taxi driver who lived in the house. They travelled to an industrial estate by the M25.

‘He got out of the taxi, took the suitcase and dragged it to the side of a lane where he hid it in some undergrowth.

Appearing at the Old bailey today, Arslan admitted manslaughter but denied murder claiming he did not intend to kill Miss Bashir. He also denies perverting the course of justice by disposing of the body

‘He left that suitcase concealed there in the days that followed.

‘Friends and family of Hina Bashir became worried by her disappearance. Her lack of contact was out of character.

‘Questions began to be asked. A few days went by, the police were called and investigations began.

‘In due course that suitcase was discovered and it was opened, revealing squeezed inside of it it, the dead body of Ms Bashir.

‘On examination the pathologist found that a facemask had been pushed into her mouth. It was found there balled up.

‘It had forced her tongue backwards, blocking her airway at the back of her throat.

‘As for the cause of her death, Hina Bashir had been killed through asphyxia- the facemask that was forced into her mouth had stopped her from breathing.

‘After the defendant’s arrest police found evidence on the defendant’s phone showing that although she was five years younger than him the defendant had become close to her when she was a teenager.

‘On his phone was evidence showing he had had frequent contact when she was younger.

‘The defendant was later to insist to the police that there was no relationship between the two of them, however when the police translated the materials found on his phone they found that he had been repeatedly in contact with her, that he had been declaring intense love for her.

‘He spoke in those old contacts about wanting to be together with her, wanting her to be his wife, wanting to have a child with her.

‘His phone also contained messages between him and another man, in which that other man suggested Ms Bashir was in fact engaged to him, rather than to the defendant.

‘The defendant expressed his shock and sent messages suggesting that he thought Hina had cheated on him.

‘On his phone the police also found messages, from 2021, suggesting he was trying to get in contact with her, including by sending messages pretending to be a female.

‘The police also found on his phone image after image of Ms Bashir, taken at different time, different ages.

‘Some of them having been photo-shopped or altered using an software or apps.

‘Some of them had love hearts added, they found collages of several image of her which had been put together.

‘The evidence suggests the defendant was obsessed with her.’

Jurors were shown an image he had edited of himself and Hina both inside love hearts.

He had also edited a photograph of a cake with the words ‘Happy Birthday Hina Arslan’ on it.

Ms Bashir arrived came to the UK in November 2021 to study business management at the London campus of Coventry University.

Arslan arrived in February 2022, telling people he wanted to marry Hina and that she was his fiancé, the court heard.

Hina found a room in Manor Park, while Arslan moved to nearby Ilford.

She stayed with him overnight in April 2022 because she was moving accommodation, sleeping in his bedroom while he slept in the living room, the court heard.

On 11 July she returned to collect some belongings.

She was showing friends messages from the defendant in which he called her ‘my life’ on the way there, the court heard.

She told them she had been struggling to get her things back from Arslan.

Jurors were shown a Snapchat video taken by her friend on the street showing Hina wearing an orange t-shirt which read ‘sunshine is a state of mind’.

She also wore orange trousers.

Arslan looked at messages and photographs on Hina’s phone in the hours after he killed her, the court heard.

He took photos on his phone of photos he found of her with other young men.

Hina’s blood was found on his bed and facemasks with the same pattern as the one found in her mouth were found in his home.

Arslan, of Natal Road, Ilford, denies murder and perverting the course of justice.

He is assisted in court by an Urdu interpreter.