Pair found guilty of murder of Sanam’s killer

Gary Smith, 48, and Lee Newell, 44, blamed each other for the death of Subhan Anwar, who was found dead in his cell at HMP Long Lartin in south Worcestershire.

But both were convicted of murder yesterday by a jury at Warwick Crown Court.

Anwar, from Huddersfield, was serving a life sentence for killing his partner’s two-year-old daughter Sanam Navsarka. in 2009.

Sanam had 107 separate injuries on her body, all four limbs broken and fractures to both forearms and thigh bones.

Sanam’s mother Zahbeena Navsarka, who grew up in Dewsbury, and is formerly of Soothill, was jailed for nine years for manslaughter following the trail in 2009.

Anwar, formerly of Batley, was sentenced to a minimum of 28 years for her murder. The jury had not been told of his crimes.

Smith and Newall tied him up and throttled him with a pair of tracksuit bottoms on Long Lartin’s Delta Wing on February 14.

Throughout the trial, barristers acting for two men accused of killing Anwar both blamed the other defendant for the crime.

But the jury found Smith and Newell were both responsible for Anwar’s murder.

Joe Stone QC, for Newell, had asked the jury to consider whether the accused’s intention was to kill Anwar or take him hostage in a bid to get transferred out of the prison.

“This was a hostage-taking situation which has gone horribly, horribly wrong.”

Jonas Hankin QC, for Smith, pointed out to the jury that Newell “has strangled before.”

He said: “Mr Anwar was murdered; of that there can be absolutely no doubt.

“I suggest the identity of the perpetrator is equally straight-forward – and it is Lee Newell.

“He has strangled before and he confessed to killing Mr Anwar to a fellow prisoner.”

Earlier, the court heard from prison officer Thomas Smith, who witnessed the pair after Anwar’s body was found,

He said: “There was no real tension between them. They were both horrendously calm.”

Smith and Newell will be sentenced at Warwick Crown Court on Monday.