Woman fatally injured at Arthur’s Seat said husband had pushed her, witness says

  • 3/31/2023
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A woman walking on Arthur’s Seat on the night a husband is alleged to have pushed his wife off the Edinburgh hill claimed the alleged victim told her he had pushed her, a court has heard. Kashif Anwar, 29, is accused of murdering Fawziyah Javed, 31, and her unborn child in September 2021 by pushing her from the landmark. Anwar denies all the charges against him, including one of acting in a threatening and abusive way towards his wife at a hotel in Edinburgh the day before her fall. Giving evidence at the high court in Edinburgh on Friday, witness Daniyah Rafique, 24, said she found Javed on Arthur’s Seat on the evening of 2 September 2021. She said she was approached by Anwar, who she described as looking “panicked”. She said he told her his wife had fallen and he could not see her. Rafique told the court she made her way back down Arthur’s Seat with Anwar to try to find his wife. Upon finding Javed, Rafique said the injured woman asked her: “Am I going to be OK? Is my baby going to be OK?” Rafique reassured her and told her emergency services were on their way. Rafique said: “She said she was really scared. She kept saying: ‘Don’t let my husband near me, he pushed me.’ “I said this to her a few more times: ‘He pushed you?’” To which she said “Yes, I think so,” Rafique said. Rafique said two police officers then approached her. PC Rhiannon Clutton, 35, told the court she found Javed “writhing in pain” with an obvious injury to the head but told the court “she could still speak”. Clutton told the court: “I asked her what had happened.” “She said: ‘He pushed me,’” Clutton told the court. “I asked her who had pushed her and why.” The court heard that Javed told Clutton: “My husband, because I told him I wanted to end it.” Clutton told the court Javed had meant she wanted to end the relationship. The officer said she asked Javed if she had previously spoken to the police about him and Javed said she had “at home in Leeds”. The court also heard how Javed repeatedly asked for water and “if she was going to die” and if her baby “was going to die”. Javed’s condition deteriorated further when the fire service joined the rescue operation. Following this, Clutton said Javed became “unresponsive” and that is when CPR commenced. She was then pronounced dead at around 10.18pm on 2 September 2021. The trial continues.

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