Obsessed Ilford man ‘suffocated woman to death with facemask’

Muhammad Arslan, a 27-year-old delivery driver, killed 21-year-old Hina Bashir by stuffing a balled-up facemask in her mouth, causing her to suffocate. 

Prosecutor Gareth Patterson KC told an Old Bailey jury that Arslan then put her body in a suitcase, which he dumped at an industrial estate near the M25. 

On Tuesday (June 6), the day of his trial, Arslan pleaded guilty to manslaughter having previously denied murder and perverting the course of justice by concealing her body. 

However, while he admits that he caused her death he disputes that what he did amounts to murder as he claims he did not intend to kill her or to cause really serious harm. 

Arslan and Hina grew up in the same village in Pakistan and were close with one another before Hina moved to the UK to study in November 2021, Mr Patterson said. 

She was studying business management while living in a house in Manor Park, the court heard. 

Mr Patterson said Arslan arrived in the UK in 2022, living in Sussex before moving to a shared room in a house on Natal Road, Ilford, near where Hina lived. 

He told housemates that he was in love with and engaged to a woman from Pakistan who now lives in the UK, the court heard. 

“However, it appears she did not want to be with him and in fact she had a relationship after she came here with another young man,” Mr Patterson said. 

At around 10.30pm on July 11 last year Hina went to Arslan’s house with a friend to collect some belongings of hers which she had left there when she had stayed at his house while moving accommodation.  

“She entered the house in which he lived but did not come back out and her friend had to leave with her. She never left that house alive,” Mr Patterson said. 

The following morning Arslan left the house dragging a suitcase behind him, the court heard. 

He got a taxi to an industrial estate and left the suitcase in some undergrowth down a narrow lane, Mr Patterson said. 

Police began investigating after Hina’s friends and family became worried about her disappearance.  

“In due course the suitcase was discovered and opened, revealing squeezed inside it the dead body of Hina Bashir,” Mr Paterson said. 

A pathologist gave the cause of death as asphyxia, after a facemask was forced into her mouth forcing her tongue backwards and stopping her from breathing. 

Facemasks matching the pattern of the one in her mouth were later found inside Arslan’s house, the court heard. 

Hina’s blood was also found on Arslan’s bed and telephone evidence shows that he was in possession of her phone in the hours after she entered his house, Mr Patterson said. 

When police spoke to Arslan he denied knowing where Hina was and admitted that she had been a neighbour in his village in Pakistan. 

However, Mr Patterson said Arslan insisted he had not had a relationship with her and did not love her. 

Police later found messages on his phone declaring his intense love for Hina and wanting her to be his wife, the court heard. The phone also contained messages between Arslan and another man in which the man suggested Hina was engaged to him rather than Arslan. 

Mr Patterson said Arslan expressed shock and sent messages suggesting that he believed Hina had cheated on him. 

Police also found a large number of photos of Hina on his phone including collages of her with love hearts over them, the court heard. 

After being spoken to by police, he sent messages to others apparently about Hina, saying “I don’t know how many boyfriends she has here” and “she kept me in the forefront of them all as a showpiece”, the court heard. 

After Arslan pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the day of his murder trial, Mr Patterson said: “We will have to wait and see if he gives evidence and if so, what explanation he now gives for her death.” 

“How do you assess a person’s intent? You look at what he did before, during and after the incident,” Mr Patterson continued. 

“The prosecution say that you only have to think for a moment about what must have been done by her attacker, to realise that whoever did that, must have been trying, over whatever length of time it took, to stop her breathing. Those actions clearly show an intention to kill.” 

The trial continues.