Sabira Alam murder trial: Suspect thought Sabira’s disappearance was a prank

Oct 15 2009 by Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A MAN suspected of murdering his girlfriend told detectives he was shocked and surprised by his arrest.

Naveed Naeem, who denies murdering 20-year-old former beauty student Sabira Alam, told officers investigating her death that he initially thought her reported disappearance might be prank.

Naeem was asked how he felt when he was arrested on the evening of Sunday April 5 this year.

He told police during an interview: “Well it was pretty shocking. I was surprised for that tohappen.”

He added that when he saw the police he thought they wanted to ask him more questions about Sabira.

“I’m watching my mum collapse to the floor and I’m thinking what is going on here,” he added.

Yesterday a jury at Bradford Crown Court began hearing evidence from a dozen police interviews with the 30-year-old following his arrest.

Naeem, of New Street, Milnsbridge, was arrested by police within hours of Miss Alam’s body being found in a roadside gully in the Buckstones area.

He maintained in his first police interview that he had not murdered his girlfriend in the early hours of April 2 when he dropped her off near her home in Vernon Avenue, Greenhead.

Naeem said they had planned to go to the cinema that night, but after an argument on the way they had driven around for a while before he dropped her off.

Later that day Naeem said he had travelled over to his aunt’s in Manchester where he spent the next two nights.