A west London man has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for the attempted murder of his lover’s wife.
Firad Muhammed of Ellison Gardens, Ealing, travelled to his victim’s home in Bromley in October 2020 and shot the 32-year-old man in his legs twice. He fled the scene leaving no clue for the police to pick up.
However, Met officers discovered an exchange of romantic messages between Muhammed and the victim’s wife on Facebook. Some of them showed Muhammed’s regret at shooting the victim at his home instead of committing the crime at some other place in Bromley.
The discovery led to Muhammed’s arrest and Inner London Crown Court in July this year convicted him of attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. His sentencing took place on Friday.
Detective constable Ben Briselden, who officiated the investigation, said Muhammed, 28, travelled to the victim’s home “with the intention to kill him”.
There were no leads when the investigation began and “we had to build the case through detailed mobile phone analysis,” he said.
Following the sentencing, the victim who fully recovered from the wounds, could now “move on with his life in the knowledge Muhammed is not going to be out of prison for a very long time,” Briselden said.
Judge Ian Darling took note of the “painstaking” and “thorough” probe by Briselden and fellow detective constable Imran Hansraj.
“The investigation into the shooting was fraught with difficulty, it seems no one was keen to tell the police anything of the truth,” the judge said, adding the Met Police officers were completely in the dark” initially.
The officers set about a “particularly onerous and impressive trawl through phone contacts to try and identify potential suspects,” he said during the sentencing.
It was a “slow and thankless task” which finally bore fruit because of the officers, the judge said.