Truck driver who crushed teen girlfriend to death months after she gave birth is jailed

Mohammed Azim, from Tipton, used his van to crush 19-year-old Lily Whitehouse on his 41st birthday just months after she gave birth to a premature baby

A recovery truck driver has been jailed for life for murdering his girlfriend by crushing her against a lamppost during an argument on his birthday.

Mohammed Azim, from Tipton, used his van as a weapon to murder 19-year-old Lily Whitehouse on his 41st birthday on November 5 last year, just months after she gave birth to a premature baby who was fathered by another man.

He was today sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years.

Jurors took less than six hours to find the 41-year-old guilty by a majority of 10 to two of murder on Friday following a two-week trial.

Members of Ms Whitehouse’s family in the public gallery sobbed as the verdict was returned.

The trial heard Ms Whitehouse, who had just been to visit her baby in a neonatal intensive care unit, was crushed against a lamppost in Old Park Lane, Oldbury, by Azim’s flatbed Mercedes Sprinter vehicle, causing fatal chest injuries.

After Ms Whitehouse was injured, Azim, who was 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 at the scene.

He stopped the truck in nearby Park Street and put her on the pavement before the emergency services arrived. After paramedics and police found Azim’s story about a hit-and-run “strange”, he was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Passing sentence today, Judge Mr Justice Murray told the defendant: “Your decision to kill Lily was spontaneous, but you would have been aware she had a five-week-old baby still in hospital.

“The baby has lost her mother forever at the very beginning of her life. Although Lily was not particularly vulnerable… she was a psychologically vulnerable young woman given her troubled background.

“She was very needy and dependent on you as you well knew.” He added: “It must have been apparent at the moment you drove your heavy truck at her, there was a substantial risk you could kill her by doing so.

“I cannot be sure you formed an intention to kill Lily when you hit her with your truck. I sentence on a basis that your intention was to cause her really serious harm.”

The judge said messages between the defendant and Ms Whitehouse made it clear the victim was “strongly attached to you and to a degree, volatile and extremely needy”.

He said: “I am satisfied that while much of the time you were supportive and kind, largely because you wanted to continue a sexual relationship with Lily, you were at times aggressive.

“It is clear the relationship was very much on your terms, which is not surprising given you were a much older man with more life experience.”

In his evidence to the court, 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.

Prosecutors claimed Azim’s version of events was an “act” and that the pair were arguing on the night of Ms Whitehouse’s death.

CCTV from a nearby school captures the sound of Azim’s recovery truck idling just out of view of the camera 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 on the CCTV, Ms Brand said, which the prosecution said was the truck striking a lamppost.

A Home Office pathologist found Ms Whitehouse had suffered injuries predominantly to her right side while in an upright position, including a broken upper arm, fractured ribs, a laceration to her liver and traumatic injuries to her chest, which caused “severe bleeding” and led to her death.

Giving evidence during the trial, Ms Whitehouse’s aunt, Melissa Wheeler, told the jury her niece had met Azim after they exchanged numbers in West Bromwich High Street and began a relationship.

During questioning by the prosecution, Ms Wheeler agreed that the victim had been “besotted” with Azim but that the pair would fight a lot and the defendant would sometimes block Ms Whitehouse when she tried to speak to him.

She said she was aware that Azim was not the father of Ms Whitehouse’s baby and he was “not happy” that she was pregnant so she would hide her bump with long clothing when she visited or stayed with him.

Ms Wheeler said her niece went into labour 10 weeks early after she fell to ground when Azim “sped off” in his vehicle.

Libby Higgs, a friend of the victim, told the jury that Ms Whitehouse confided in her that Azim would say “vile” things to her and would punch her, which he claimed was playfighting.

In his evidence, Azim denied ever being violent to Ms Whitehouse and said he was the only person who supported her after she fell out with her family.

Explaining his version of events on the night Ms Whitehouse was fatally injured, he said he picked her up after she got off a bus from Russells Hall Hospital where she had been visiting her baby and was going to drop her home in Amber Drive, Oldbury.

Ms Whitehouse allegedly asked him to sit with her for 10 minutes before she went home, so he pulled up in Old Park Lane nearby because it was a wider road for his van and the two chatted and scrolled on their phones.

He said they had not argued and Ms Whitehouse simply did not want to go home so asked if she could stay with him. Azim said he told her no as he was tired and had to get up early for work, but she tried to stop him by going in front of the van.

He started to drive slowly to the left to go around Ms Whitehouse, he said, but had to swerve back to the right because of parked cars.

In his evidence, Azim told the jury: “I hear a bang at the back. It could have been Lily jumping on the truck. I felt something bump the back. I feel the back tyres, like something come under the tyre or something drop under the tyre. I slammed the brake and straight away stopped. I looked back and saw Lily on the floor in the middle of the road.”

The court heard Azim came to the UK in 2001 from Pakistan around the age of 14 and went to college and worked in takeaway restaurants to learn English. He was married in 2007 but had been single and living alone since his marriage ended in 2015.

Mr Justice Murray said the 227 days Azim has spent on remand would be taken off the minimum term he must serve.