Video shows truck 'pushing' teen before death

CCTV footage showing the moment a teenager was pushed down the road by a truck, seconds before she is alleged to have been crushed to death, has been released by police.

Mohammed Azim, 41, is accused of murdering his 19-year-old girlfriend Lily Whitehouse on 5 November, months after she gave birth to a premature baby that was fathered by another man.

Azim, of Tividale Road, Tipton, denies her murder, just after she had been to visit her baby in a neonatal intensive care unit. He was alleged to have crushed her against a lamp-post in Old Park Lane in Oldbury.

The prosecution told the court it appeared as if he was "nudging or pushing" Whitehouse with the truck before using it as "a weapon".

CCTV cameras at a nearby school captured the sound of Azim's recovery truck idling for about 16 minutes beforehand, the court heard.

The footage then showed the vehicle comes in view and Whitehouse was seen walking quickly along the road on the driver's side.

The jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court heard prosecutors say Azim crushed her against the lamp-post with his Mercedes Sprinter, causing fatal chest injuries.

"The defendant is driving the truck as if he was nudging or pushing her along the road," Rachel Brand KC told the court, during the prosecution's opening speech.

"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."

After the teenager was hurt, Azim, who the court heard had been in an on-off relationship with her since 2023, was alleged to have picked her up and put her in his truck while dialling 999.

The defendant told the emergency services he had seen he victim being hit by a vehicle that did not stop at the scene.

In the call, Azim was heard to say: "I need an ambulance please, please… it's crazy… she is bleeding, she got hit by a car and they drive off… they drive off."

Asked by the call handler what had happened, Azim replied: "I don't know, she got run over… she was crossing the road… She's in my truck, she's in my truck… Oh my god… it's messed up man."

Video footage from body-worn cameras on police officers showed Azim, with blood on his face, describing what type of car had hit the 19-year-old, comparing it to another vehicle in the road.

The 41-year-old told officers: "Man he was fast, that's why man, or he didn't see her, I don't know. Oh my god."

He was arrested on suspicion of murder, after emergency services found Azim's story about a hit-and-run "strange", the court was told.

He held his hands to his face as he said "I have never seen something like this man" in the back of a police car before he was handcuffed.

Jurors were also told of text messages between the defendant and Whitehouse in which she regularly begged Azim to see her and accused him of seeing other women.

The trial continues.

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