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Aylesbury murder case latest: Driver ‘devastated’ by killing
More cautions than court for violence
AN Aylesbury taxi driver has told jurors he was left ‘devastated’ by the death of his wife – and was deeply upset at being accused of killing her.
Mohammed Tariq Aziz, 45, took to the witness stand to deny murdering Zarina Bibi at the couple’s Glaven Road home, and to rubbish claims he had forced a teenager to lie to spare him from jail.
Father of five Mr Aziz said he wished he had died instead of his 40-year-old wife.
Mohammed Khamisa, defending, asked the taxi driver at his Reading Crown Court trial: “Did you kill Zarina Bibi, your wife?”
Mr Aziz, speaking through an interpreter, responded: “No.”
Mr Khamisa continued: “Did you have anything to do with her death?” Again, the defendant replied: “No.”
Asked how he felt about Mrs Bibi’s death, Mr Aziz said: “I was devastated, I felt that my life was going to end.
“I should have died instead of her.”
He said he loved his wife, who he married in Pakistan in 1993, and when asked if arguments had turned violent, he responded: “Never.”
But jurors heard that the couple had quarrelled about a woman in Pakistan, who was named as Yasmin.
Mr Aziz said he was not having an affair, and had no intention of leaving his wife.
Prosecutors claim Mr Aziz murdered his wife in order to cash in a £112,500 life insurance policy.
But the defendant said the couple had taken out the policy on the advice of their accountant, as they were trying to remortgage their home.
Asked of he forced Mrs Bibi to take out the policy, Mr Aziz said: “No way. He had also spoken to the accountant, she was saying: ‘Why are you delaying this?’”
Mrs Bibi was found dead in pool of blood, lying between the kitchen and hallway of her home at 4pm.
The court heard that in the morning of March 16, the day of the killing, Mr Aziz did two contract taxi runs, before going with a friend, Mohammed Rangzeb, to look at a car.
In between each journey, he returned home, and was back in the house shortly before midday.
Describing the atmosphere between himself and his wife, he recalled: “It was all normal.”
He claimed that he drove to AS Autos in Rabans Lane, Aylesbury, because he was worried that the minibus he used for work was leaking oil.
After that, he returned home briefly to pick up insurance papers.
From there, he tried to call on a relative in Prebendal Avenue, but found no-one was answering the door.
He then went to his employer’s base in Cambridge Street before starting his second school run of the day.
Mr Aziz recalled that he had lost his phone during the day, but had received a call from boss Khalid Mahmood telling him to go home because there was an ambulance outside his house.
The taxi driver said: “At the time I thought maybe my children were playing outside, and they’d had an accident.”
In the days following Mrs Bibi’s death, Mr Aziz was arrested on suspicion of her murder.
He told the court: “I was really, really upset at the time, firstly that I’d lost my wife and second about what had happened to me.”
He denied claims that he had forced a teenager to lie about the clothes he was wearing.
Prosecutors claim he was wearing a different outfit in the morning, before Mrs Bibi’s death, and in the afternoon.
The trial continues.
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Weather for Aylesbury
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
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