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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Rachel Manning murder: Shahidul Ahmed found guilty | Rachel Manning murder: Shahidul Ahmed found guilty |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| A restaurant worker has been convicted of the murder of teenager Rachel Manning, 11 years after her boyfriend was wrongly jailed for the killing. | |
| Shahidul Ahmed, 41, strangled and repeatedly hit the 19-year-old shop assistant with a car steering lock in December 2000 before dumping her body in undergrowth at a golf course. | Shahidul Ahmed, 41, strangled and repeatedly hit the 19-year-old shop assistant with a car steering lock in December 2000 before dumping her body in undergrowth at a golf course. |
| A "cold match" on DNA obtained when he was arrested for a sexual assault in 2010 linked him to the murder. New DNA profiles from suspects that are uploaded to the police DNA database are automatically scanned against profiles on file from previous unsolved crimes. | A "cold match" on DNA obtained when he was arrested for a sexual assault in 2010 linked him to the murder. New DNA profiles from suspects that are uploaded to the police DNA database are automatically scanned against profiles on file from previous unsolved crimes. |
| Manning's boyfriend, Barri White, 20 at the time, was convicted of the murder in 2002 and served six years in prison before his conviction was quashed on appeal as a result of fresh scientific evidence, and after his case was examined by the BBC's Rough Justice programme. | |
| After Ahmed was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 17 years, White said: "I feel over the moon that justice has finally been done and really happy that Rachel's family have finally got justice and the closure they deserve." | After Ahmed was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 17 years, White said: "I feel over the moon that justice has finally been done and really happy that Rachel's family have finally got justice and the closure they deserve." |
| White's friend Keith Hyatt had been previously released from jail and cleared of any wrongdoing after being wrongly convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by helping to dispose of Manning's body. | |
| On 9 December 2002, Manning walked off alone from a nightclub in Milton Keynes to catch a taxi home to Wolverton while White walked to stay at Hyatt's home. | |
| She phoned her flatmate at 2.43am to say she was upset, and phoned White to say she did not know where she was. He and Hyatt agreed to pick her up at a Blockbuster video store at 3.13am, but she was not there. | She phoned her flatmate at 2.43am to say she was upset, and phoned White to say she did not know where she was. He and Hyatt agreed to pick her up at a Blockbuster video store at 3.13am, but she was not there. |
| She was found dead in undergrowth at Woburn golf club two days later. She had been strangled and her face disfigured by blows with the steering lock. | She was found dead in undergrowth at Woburn golf club two days later. She had been strangled and her face disfigured by blows with the steering lock. |
| Ahmed, a father of five from Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, denied murder and first stood trial in January, when a jury failed to reach a verdict. Following a retrial, a jury of seven men and five women unanimously returned a guilty verdict. | Ahmed, a father of five from Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, denied murder and first stood trial in January, when a jury failed to reach a verdict. Following a retrial, a jury of seven men and five women unanimously returned a guilty verdict. |
| The jury at Luton crown court heard that his DNA was found on the steering lock, and that it was "totally improbable" that a hair found on her clothing did not belong to him. | |
| Sentencing Ahmed, the judge, Mr Justice Wilkie, said Manning had had "much to look forward to and was relishing the challenges of life". | |
| The judge said: "Tragically at the age of 19, you, Shahidul Ahmed, snuffed all that out, driven by the same demons that led you in 2010 to conduct a sexual attack." | |
| White and Hyatt had "suffered the agony of being convicted and imprisoned for offences of which they were wholly innocent", he said. | |
| "Nothing can bring back either Rachel's life or those lost years." | |
| Baljit Ubhey, from the Crown Prosecution Service said had it not been for his arrest for the 2010 sexual assault Ahmed may never have been brought to justice for the murder. "It is thanks to developments in DNA evidence techniques that we are able to secure this conviction today." | |
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