Cole Kershaw: Sisters found guilty of helping man try to evade justice

In May 2021, three men were jailed for life after being found guilty of the murder of 18-year-old Cole Kershaw who was shot in the chest after he and his friends were chased by a silver BMW in Bury.

Cole died after he was shot on Chesham Road at around 9.40pm on August 12, 2020.

Cole Kershaw (Image: GMP)

At sentencing, Kamran Mohammed, 20, Mohammed Izaarh Khan, 22, and Khayam Ali Khurshid, 29, all from Bury, were sentenced to life following a five-week trial at Manchester Crown Court.

Mohammed was sentenced to serve a minimum term of 27 years, Khan was handed down 24 years and Khurshid was told to serve 27 years.

Mohammed Izaarh Khan, Khayam Ali Khurshid and Kamran Mohammed (Image: Greater Manchester Police)

Farah Khan, 28, of Maryport Drive, Timperley, and Husna Khan, 29, of Redwing Street, Winsford, were charged with assisting an offender, their brother, Khayam Ali Khurshid, of Eton Hill Road, Radcliffe, with a trial starting at Manchester Crown Court last week.

During the case, prosecuting barrister Marte Alnaes spoke about how both sisters had created a web of lies in their accounts.

On the evening of August 12, 2020, after Farah received a call from Khurshid, the court heard that evidence was found on Husna’s phone that she had been searching on Twitter for “GMP Bury” and “Cole Kershaw”.

This is despite the sisters saying they had no knowledge of their brother being involved in the crime.

At 4am on August 14, it was said that Farah booked a hotel in Salford Quays for three people for two nights, although Farah claimed that she only booked a hotel for her and her sister and did not know why it was booked for three people.

Two days later, on August 16, Husna hired a car and transported them to the south of England, through the Euro tunnel and into Europe.

They arrived in the Netherlands at 6.30am on August 17 and a flight was booked and paid for by Farah for Khurshid from Brussels to Dubai and then onto Islamabad, Ms Alnaes said.

But the court was told he did not board this plane and was booked onto a second flight this time from Amsterdam to Dubai to Islamabad, which was again paid for by Farah. However, he did not board this flight, possibly due to not having a valid Covid test.

Miss Alnaes said that Khurshid never made it to Pakistan and was arrested in Amsterdam.

Both sisters returned separately and were arrested at the Eurotunnel entrance on August 19.

Miss Alnaes described the whole trip as “anything but a preplanned, relaxing holiday but rather a frenzied and desperate trip".

Defending Farah, Graham Rishton said both sisters have had to “overcome difficulties of mental health” and they had a difficult childhood after growing up in care.

She suffers from ADHD, anxiety, depression and PTSD and has helped care for her mother who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

The defence argued that a call made to Farah on the night of Cole's murder was not about the incident, but instead was an innocent conversation about a car that Khurshid had borrowed from Farah.

Mr Rishton also said that the reason Farah was trying to get Khurshid to Pakistan was to sort out family affairs after their dad had died and that he had needed to go for some time.

He said: “Khurshid may have had an ulterior motive for going on the trip but these actions don’t relate to both sisters.

“If it was a frenzied dash, why didn’t they go the next day instead of the 16th of August, four days after the shooting?"

Defending Husna, Clare Ashcroft, said there was no evidence of what was said on the phone call made by Khurshid on the night of the shooting.

Regarding the searches made by Husna on Twitter, the court heard the phone was used by many members of the family so it cannot be proved that she made those searches.

The court heard that Husna has spent a considerable amount of time caring for her mother, while studying for a law degree as well as suffering from poor mental health herself.

She also grew up in care with Farah with the foster placement ending when she was 18.

The evidence in the case concluded yesterday, Monday, and the jury were sent out at 12.30pm today, Tuesday, to make their decision.

The jury came to their verdict in just two hours.

When they returned to court, Judge John Potter accepted the jury’s guilty verdicts for both sisters.

He has set a date for sentencing for Monday, August 19 and has granted both women bail until then with a curfew of 9pm to 6am.