Man killed girlfriend with truck, jury told

A woman was murdered by her on-off boyfriend when he pinned her up against a lamppost with his truck during an argument, a court has heard.

Mohammed Azim is alleged to have killed 19-year-old Lily Whitehouse in Oldbury, West Midlands, on 5 November. She had been visiting her baby in a neonatal unit on the evening she died.

Azim had picked her up after she got off a bus from the hospital. It was his 41st birthday.

The recovery truck driver denied murdering his girlfriend by crushing her against the post in Old Park Lane in his Mercedes Sprinter. His trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court is expected to last two weeks.

Prosecution counsel Rachel Brand KC told the court the mother had been visiting her baby, who was fathered by another man and born in September 2025, in the neonatal intensive care unit at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley on the evening she died.

Azim, of Tividale Road in Tipton, had been in an on-off relationship with Whitehouse since 2023, jurors heard, and picked her up after she had got off a bus from the hospital.

Brand asked the jury to consider why instead of driving her home to Amber Drive in Oldbury, he had driven past her address and on to Old Park Lane.

"We say the likelihood is the two were having an argument and that explains why he drove past the road where she lived," she said.

CCTV audio from a nearby school captured the sound of his truck idling for about 16 minutes before it came into view, with Whitehouse seen walking quickly along the road on the driver's side.

"Lily started running, the vehicle is pursuing her at a low speed but, nevertheless, we say he was clearly using that large, heavy vehicle as a weapon," Brand said.

As the truck disappeared from view, a "large bang" was heard on the CCTV, Brand said, suggesting it was the sound of it striking a lamppost.

"We believe she was crushed against a lamppost, perhaps with the driver's door of the truck open at the time," she told the court.

A Home Office pathologist found Whitehouse's injuries, predominantly to her right side and sustained while she was in an upright position, included a broken upper arm, fractured ribs, and a laceration to her liver.

Traumatic injuries to her chest caused "severe bleeding" and led to her death.

Azim is alleged to have picked her up after she was injured and put her in his truck, then called 999 to claim he had seen her being involved in a hit and run.

He drove to nearby Park Street where he stopped and put Whitehouse on the pavement, jurors heard, and was agitated when emergency services arrived, telling them they took too long and she was gone.

"Police thought the defendant's account was odd," Brand said. "He admitted he knew Ms Whitehouse and it seemed to be a strange coincidence that he witnessed a hit and run with someone known to him and picked her up and put her in his truck."

Whitehouse, who was 5ft 3in and weighed less than seven stone (44kg), was declared dead on the pavement.

Brand suggested it was highly significant Azim had picked up Whitehouse and put her in his truck, because "he wanted to distance himself and her from the place it happened".

"Within minutes he was lying," she said.

The trial, in front of High Court judge Mr Justice Murray, continues.

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