Sabira Alam murder trial: Fibres found on accused and victim matched

Oct 14 2009 By Huddersfield Examiner

FIBRES found on the jacket of a man accused of murder matched those discovered on the victim, a court heard.

Detailed evidence was given in court in the case of Sabira Alam, 20, in which the jury were told about the scientific tests carried out following the arrest of alleged killer Naveed Naeem.

But it was also confirmed that no blood had been found on his jacket and intimate samples were consistent with Naeem’s account that he had sex with his girlfriend Miss Alam on the morning of April 1 – days before her body was discovered on April 5.

Thirty-year-old Naeem, of New Street, Milnsbridge, denies murdering Sabira whose body was found in a roadside gully on moorland at Buckstones.

A forensic scientist told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that fibres found on Naeem’s jacket and in his mother’s VW Polo car matched fibres discovered on the murder victim.

The prosecution has alleged that Miss Alam, of Vernon Avenue, Greenhead, had her wrists bound and was gagged during the attack and the bindings were later cut off her body.

Forensic scientist Samantha Warnakulasuriya told the jury how microscopic examinations and other tests were carried out on various fragments of fibre found on the victim’s body, Naeem’s leather jacket and a pair of scissors from the glove compartment of the VW Polo.