Inside the lair of ‘honour killing’ uncle Mohammed Taroos Khan who murdered Somaiya Begum

The bloody body of a young woman who refused a forced marriage lay coiled on a dirty rug overnight in this seedy home of her crooked uncle.

Racks of tools line the wall in the cluttered and dirty living room of Mohammed Taroos Khan’s shipping container residence in Bradford.

Furious that his niece, Somaiya Begum, had rejected her father’s arranged marriage to her cousin in Pakistan at the age of 16, and enraged by her increasing Westernization, he mercilessly murdered the biomedical student four years later.

For her own safety, Somaiya, 20, had been living with her grandmother and another uncle, following a court-ordered Forced Marriage Protection Order.

It was at her beloved grandmother’s supposed safe house that Khan, 52, found her niece and plunged a four-inch metal spike into her back, puncturing her lung.

The sharp woodworking tool was found embedded in her decomposed body when police finally located it in a vacant lot, after a two-week search for the missing student.

Khan denied the murder at Bradford Court Crown but was found guilty of the “traumatic” attack and sentenced to 25 years in jail on Wednesday.

Despite the long jail term, Khan has insisted he will continue to pay the £240 rent for the narrow metal box where he lived, apparently under the impression that he will need the premises again.

These interior photographs, obtained by MailOnline and taken with the consent of the owner, provide a chilling snapshot of Khan’s existence and his tragic niece’s brief resting place.

He had rented two storage containers in an industrial unit just a mile from the crime scene and one on top of them where he lived.

A single bed is visible inside the ‘portable’ office-style container, which measures around 9 feet wide and 30 feet long.

The landlord, who declined to give his name, said Khan was still paying £240 a month rent for his home.

He said: ‘I got a call from Mr Khan in January and told him he could get someone else but he said no. He said that he will ask his lawyer to leave him the rent.

“He started renting the storage bins for his tools and one day he said he needed to rent the top one to live.”

Khan’s hope of returning to one of the crime scenes is in stark contrast to that of his hero brother Dawood, who testified against him in court.

Somaiya lived with her uncle Dawood and grandmother after leaving her parents’ home two years ago under the Forced Marriage Protection Order.

She moved after her own father tried to force her to marry a cousin ‘through threats of violence’.

But that safe haven was breached when Khan fatally attacked her there on June 25 last year.

Now the property’s neighbors say the heartbroken Dawood can no longer return there.

It is believed that Somaiya’s grandmother now lives alone and is occasionally visited by another son who does not live there.

Mahmood Hussain, who lives a few doors down, said: ‘He felt responsible for Somaiya. He hasn’t been home since it happened.

He hasn’t been able to cope since it all happened. It’s a shame because he’s the nicest guy.

Hussain, 44, said he first learned of Somaiya’s disappearance when Dawood frantically knocked on his door, asking him to check his CCTV footage because she was missing.

He had no idea that his brother had snuck in using a set of wrenches he cut in his sleep and embedded an 11 cm long point from a tool in his workshop into Somaiya’s back.

Bradford Crown Court heard that he probably strangled her, but an exact course of death could not be established due to the decomposition of her body, which was “dumped like rubbish” on a vacant lot.

And he added: ‘No one deserves to die like this. He deserves a life sentence.

‘It must have been because of the arranged marriage, I can’t see any other reason.

‘No one deserves to die like this. He deserves a life sentence. You don’t kill someone for it. It’s awful.’

No victim impact statements were read in court from family members, but Dawood Khan said in evidence: “It was a blessing to have her in the house and I can’t blame her.” She was the light of my life.

Another neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said he seemed like a “genuine and nice man”.

She said: ‘The uncle left the house immediately, but his mother is still there.

“I heard that he is having a nervous breakdown, he took it very badly.

‘He was really genuine. He was really charming and he thought about her a lot. I think he thought that she was his responsibility.

“The family was very quiet and never talked much, but he always seemed nice.

‘It is devastating to know what happened to him. You would never see her outside the house.

‘He had the freedom, but he only went to university and worked. She was very focused on studying, it’s a shame.

A third neighbour, who gave his name only as Abdul, said he had known Khan since they were young, but that Khan had “suddenly changed” about 25 years ago.

He said: ‘I was fine when I was younger, we never had a problem and there were never any problems. But suddenly it just changed.

I don’t know what was wrong with him, but he wasn’t the same.

He was very quiet, but you never thought he would do something like that.

‘Since the murder, Grandma never opens the door again. Some relatives come to see her and sometimes they take her shopping, but when they come from her they call from her and she opens the door.

I haven’t seen Dawood since it happened. He just left home and hasn’t come back.

Mohammad Taroos Khan used to live in the house, in Binnie Street, Bradford, before he was given a ban after being convicted of assaulting his own daughter.

He held a knife to her throat and threatened to ‘cut’ her, he heard at her murder trial.