Defendant ran raid that killed cop, trial told

THE mastermind of an armed robbery in which a police officer was killed and another seriously injured evaded capture for almost 20 years before being extradited from Pakistan, prosecutors told a jury yesterday.

PC Sharon Beshenivsky was killed on November 18, 2005, as she and a colleague, PC Teresa Milburn, responded to a report of a robbery at Universal Express travel agents in Morley Street, Bradford, West Yorkshire.

Prosecutor Robert Smith KC said the two officers were shot at almost point blank range by one of three men who had just committed the robbery, with the shooter "firing indiscriminately" as he ran away from the scene before getting into a nearby car.