The family of a woman who was murdered by a convicted violent offender when he was supposed to be under supervision have said she would still be alive had the police, social services and mental healthcare providers not failed her.
Sobhia Khan, 37 at the time of her death in May 2017, was subjected to “domestic violence on a savage scale” before being beaten to death by her newlywed husband, Ataul Mustafa. He was being monitored in the community as a restricted patient after earlier being sentenced to a hospital order for violent and sexual offences against a former partner.
Mustafa, who was jailed for life with a minimum of 33 years for the murder, was found to have fatally injured the teaching assistant with a wooden bar, coat hanger and the hotplate of an iron. She was found dead in the bathroom of Mustafa’s house with at least 36 injuries in the month after she had moved in.
Speaking to the Guardian, Khan’s brother Javed Khan said: “If the professionals had done their job properly and follow the leads that were handed to them on a silver platter then it could be a different story.”
Khan and his family, who live in Bradford, remain staggered by the events surrounding Sobhia’s death.
At the end of an inquest into her death last month the coroner highlighted multiple failures by authorities in Derby, including the private Cygnet hospital, the NHS community mental health team, police force and social services. The findings have prompted Derbyshire police to refer the case to the watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
The inquest heard Mustafa was detained after being given a hospital order for attacking, torturing and setting fire to another woman, which ultimately saw him transferred to the Cygnet hospital in 2013.
During his time there, he entered into a secret relationship with a healthcare assistant who he in turn abused and threatened.
When the relationship was exposed, she was fired and the coroner highlighted how Mustafa “was treated as the victim” and the woman’s “descriptions of his offence – paralleling behaviour in the relationship were dismissed”.
Furthermore, the assistant coroner, Clement Goldstone KC, found the treatment Mustafa received at Cygnet was inadequate: he did not complete a sex offender treatment programme as recommended. As a result, his release back into the community in 2015 was “inappropriate”.
Once back at his home in Derby, the coroner found Mustafa’s supervision was “insufficiently robust and forensic” adding there was too much focus on his mental health and not his risk to women.
Mustafa entered into a relationship with Khan after – his family suspects – meeting her online. Mustafa’s niece risked her safety by reporting the relationship to authorities including social services, the community health team and the police. The niece was relocated for her own protection but no one followed up with Khan or Mustafa.
Javed Khan, who is obtaining legal advice on pursing a civil claim after receiving the inquest ruling, said: “I’m disheartened with the systems in place in this country … where’s the mechanism to stop innocent women being murdered by people that are known to authorities and have been released into the community?”
He wants his sister’s death to be a wake-up call for authorities, a test case from which they can learn to improve the systems in place to protect women. “I want the authorities to use this as an example of a case to say: look, this guy manipulated us professionals, the police, all these agencies that were involved. Let’s use this as a benchmark … to save women’s lives.”
Her brother wants to remember Khan as she was before she met Mustafa: a strong independent outgoing woman who loved children. “She was a role model for my daughters. She took them through their studies at school. She was outgoing. She was just a typical girl, she was free. She was strong, she was independent.”
At the conclusion of the inquest on 16 February, Goldstone said he would be raising several areas of concern in a prevention of future deaths report sent to the Ministry of Justice, Cygnet hospital Derby, Derbyshire police, Derbyshire NHS foundation trust and Derby city council.
Matthew Gold, of Gold Jennings Solicitors, who represented the Khan family, said the authorities involved have been found to have been “seriously wanting”.
Derby city council, responsible for social services, said that after Khan’s murder in May 2017 it conducted its own review but would consider the coroner’s comments.
Cygnet said it had worked closely with other agencies to share findings and implement them and had made the necessary improvements across its services.
Derbyshire healthcare NHS foundation trust apologised and said several changes had been made to the health services since 2017, many of which were in direct response to learning from Khan’s death.
Derbyshire constabulary’s assistant chief constable, James Abdy, apologised and said the force had reviewed its management of sexual or violent offenders unit and would reflect on the inquest.
In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
