A TikToker accused of murdering her married mum's 'lover' has claimed the man had made deep fake pornographic images of her.
Fashion influencer Mahek Bukhari, 23, her mum, Ansreen Bukhari, 45, and six other defendants deny murdering 21-year-olds Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin.
Prosecutors say Hussain, from Banbury in Oxfordshire, was killed after threatening to expose his relationship with Bukhari's mum.
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He and Ijazuddin died on the A46 near Leicester in February when the car they were in was allegedly rammed off a road, hitting a tree and catching fire.
In a panicked 999 call to police made by front-seat passenger Hussain in the final moments of his life, he claimed Ijazuddin's silver Skoda Fabia was being 'blocked in' and rammed by balaclava-wearing assailants, following in two pursuing cars.
After firefighters extinguished the blaze, the two men were only identifiable by 'dental records', the jury heard.
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Giving evidence at Leicester Crown Court on Wednesday (16 November), Bukhari, of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, said she met Hussain at a London shisha bar in the summer of 2020 and her mum later admitted having an affair with him.
She alleged he subsequently attempted to tarnish her reputation by distributing deep fake images of her online
According to LeicestershireLive, she said: "I was embarrassed. It was ruining my reputation.
"Saqib already admitted it was him. He had mentioned at the end of 2021 that he had been making images of me. He admitted making it to me via text messages.
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"He wanted attention so my mum would reply to him. He was posting and commenting on my live videos saying 'your mum is having an affair'. He was doing it to try and get my attention."
Wearing a white shirt and dark jacket, the content creator and YouTuber told the jury that she confronted her mum about the allegations she initially denied it, before coming clean.
She said: "At the beginning, she was denying it… then he started about, 'I have sexual images of her'.
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"She told me about the relationship and how she wanted to end it. She said she made a mistake and she felt so bad about it.
"Hearing that from my mum. It did break me."
Answering questions from defence KC Christopher Millington, Bukhari said she blocked Hussain's account after coming to see him as mentally unstable and his behaviour towards her mother as 'just vile'.
She added: "Every morning at breakfast, she (Ansreen) would just be crying in her room.
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"I advised her that the police would be the best way because you could get a restraint order."
Co-accused in the case are Rekan Karwan, 28, and Raees Jamal, 22, Natasha Akhtar, 22, Sanaf Gulammustafa, 22, Ameer Jamal, 27, and Mohammed Patel, 20.
Outlining the alleged plot, Collingwood Thompson KC, prosecuting, said an agreement was initially allegedly struck with Hussain for Bukhari to pay up to £3,000 for his silence about the affair.
"These messages and these threats reflect no credit on Saqib whatsoever and would in fact amount to a criminal offence of blackmail," he said.
"Whatever that position might have been, it presented Ansreen and Mahek Bukhari with a problem."
He added: "He'd have got the money.
"But of course he would still be in possession of explicit videos and pictures which in theory he could send any time, even after he'd got the money."
He added: "It is clear that Mahek must have turned to one of her friends to assist, and that friend was Rekan Karwan.
"The Crown infer Karwan must have then started speaking to others, who became involved: Raees Jamal, who was also known to Mahek Bukhari.
"He (Jamal) in turn recruited others to help him, notably Natasha Akhtar whose car was used in course of that evening, and the car used, we say, to ram the Skoda Fabia.
"Others became involved. Between them, the Crown allege, they set a trap."
He continued: "The idea was to lure Saqib into a meeting, the lure being the promise to return the money and to see Ansreen Bukhari.
"Once at that meeting he would then be confronted with numerical superiority and it is hoped, no doubt, he would hand his phone over.
"The Crown case, as you may gather, is, however, if he was not willing to hand his phone over, they were prepared to cause him really serious injury to achieve their ends – if not to silence him permanently."
The three women and five men deny two counts of murder and two alternative charges of manslaughter. The trial continues.
Topics: UK News, Crime, TikTok, Instagram, Social Media
Jake Massey