Sisters jailed for Smuggling Murder Suspect Brother out of UK

Two sisters who smuggled their fugitive brother out of the UK by driving him 550 miles across Europe while he was wanted for murder have been jailed.

Aspiring lawyers Husna and Farah Khan took Khayam Khurshid on a six-day road trip across Europe to help him flee to their native Pakistan.

Khurshid was wanted by police after he was involved in the mistaken killing of 18-year-old boxer Cole Kershaw following an underworld feud over a girl.

The plot began after Khurshid was among a gang of men who were involved in the botched fatal shooting of Cole Kershaw at 9:30 pm on August 12, 2020, during a feud between two other men over a woman.

On the night of the killing in Bury, Khurshid and two friends were in a BMW and armed with a gun and baseball bats.

One of the occupants shot at a vehicle in which Cole was travelling with the intended target.

After a chase, both cars crashed and Cole – who had been in the “wrong place at the wrong time” – tried to flee on foot but several shots were fired and he was hit in the side of the chest, damaging the main artery to his heart.

He was taken to Royal Oldham Hospital but later died from his injuries.

Meanwhile, the intended target escaped unharmed.

In the hours after the murder, Khurshid contacted his sisters and arrangements were made to move a different BMW owned by Farah which her brother had previously used.

Husna searched on X for phrases like “Cole Kershaw” and “Bury GMP” before the pair booked a room for two nights at the Ibis hotel in Salford at 4 am to shield their brother.

Farah also made a 450-mile round trip to Southampton for unknown reasons before texting and FaceTiming Khurshid, saying:

“Inshallah, everything will be good.”

The siblings eventually travelled to Kent using a hire car and went through the Eurotunnel using last-minute tickets purchased in Dover before driving across mainland Europe.

They initially tried to book a last-minute flight to Islamabad at Brussels.

But Khurshid was rejected due to his Covid status.

Instead, they drove to the Netherlands where a further failed attempt was made to get him on a flight to Islamabad via Dubai.

The sisters even considered driving him 4,700 miles to Pakistan.

But Khurshid was arrested on August 18 when police tracked them to Amsterdam.

He was later extradited back to the UK where he was jailed for life for murder and having a firearm with intent to endanger life.

The women escaped but were arrested when they returned to the UK via the Channel tunnel.

Both gave no comment interviews but later claimed they had no idea their brother had committed a murder and were simply taking him on a “family holiday”.

Lawyers for the sisters said both had “mental health issues” after growing up in care when their parents split up.

They also suggested “cultural” and “familial” reasons were behind the escape plot.

At Manchester Crown Court, the sisters were convicted of assisting an offender.

Judge John Potter told them: “This was very serious offending.

“I am prepared to accept during those six days, you were acting out of a misplaced sense of loyalty to your brother.

“But this does not diminish the seriousness of your offending.

“You tried to spirit away from justice someone who had committed a murder, a man whom you knew had taken part in a cold-blood shooting.

“You planned your actions carefully and more than once acted quite deliberately in trying to deceive the authorities from conducting their investigation as to the whereabouts of your brother.

“You were both willing to go to great lengths and pay a considerable amount of money to place your brother out of the reach of the authorities.

“Everything possible was done to spirit him away from justice.”

“There may have been cultural matters at play here but no excuse arises from those matters which might have allowed you to behave in the way you did.

“I understand you have both in effect destroyed your careers in law and it is a tragedy that two young capable women, as you are, should appear before this court facing sentence for such serious offending.

“But you decided to act as you did – the responsibility for your offending lies with you.”

The sisters were each jailed for two and a half years.

Khurshid is currently serving a minimum of 27 years in jail after an appeal against his conviction was overturned. Two other men are also serving life for murder.