Guilty: Gedu Bibi

Table leg killing: Upton Park mother facing prison after Old Bailey conviction

by Pat Coughtrey , News Editor Friday, June 1, 2012
5:00 PM

»A mother who had her 13-year-old daughter’s boyfriend beaten to death, then persuaded the girl to take the blame, is facing jail.

Cleared: Lilu Miah

Gedu Bibi, 47, lured 21-year-old hospital worker Sumon Miah to her home in Upton Park after after he posted topless pictures of the girl, Shuhina Khanam, on the internet.

Once there, he was hit over the head with a table leg and fell into a coma. He died nine days later, on October 17, 2006.

Bibi got her daughter to tell police she had hit the victim in self-defence after he turned up with a knife. Her 12-year-old son Fhalak backed up the story.

Detectives closed their probe in 2008 but fresh information emerged two years later leading to Bibi and her former lover, 48-year-old café owner Lilu Miah, being charged with murder.

After a trial at the Old Bailey, jurors cleared Bibi of murder but convicted her of manslaughter. Lilu Miah was cleared of both charges. However, the pair were convicted of perverting the course of justice.

They will be sentenced later.

On October 8, 2006, Sumon Miah was invited into Bibi’s family home in Priory Court.

After he had been knocked out out with the table leg, the weapon was wiped clean, then put in the hands of Shuhina to ensure it held her fingerprints.

When Bibi was finally arrested, she claimed she was asleep when the killing took place, while Lilu Miah said he had been working at his café.

The new evidence came when a recording of a 999 call was re-examined. Fhalak said Sumon Miah was outside the house trying to get in. But a phonetics expert heard a man groaning in the background, revealing that he had already been hit.

On the tape, Bibi is heard telling Lilu Miah to flee the house.

Bibi and Lilu Miah, of Bow, both denied murder.