Social media is a large part of our daily lives. People check their instagram, facebook, twitter, and snapchat regularly. Some would even say that social media has taken over, leaving people zombies with phones. With YouTube, and TikTok, everyone is looking to be an influencer, to be “social media famous.” So it’s no surprise when 21-year-old Fatima Khan, the self-confessed “Snapchat addict” filmed the death of her boyfriend and shared it online.
Fatima Khan and her boyfriend, Khalid Safi, had an “on again-off again” relationship. They had been together for several years, but according to Fatima, things were not going well. She took a luxury holiday in Qatar, posting stories and images online, bragging about her trip – while ignoring any and all messages from Khalid.
She complained to her friends that Khalid had become “too clingy,” and branded him a “lowlife.” At one point he bought her a watch as a gift, but when he went to her home, she threw it out the window at him. It’s hard to say why Khalid would stay with a woman who clearly felt so much scorn for him.
Fatima knew Khalid wasn’t the only man vying for her affections. 19-year-old Raza Khan had also dated her at one point, and was still interested. She enjoyed the attention, even Snapchatting Raza daily as part of a group chat.
She knew Khalid and Raza were rivals, after all, the two had previously fought over her, during which Khalid had been stabbed.
On December 1, 2016, Fatima met up with Khalid after finishing work at Vigilant Security around 5pm. They walked around North Acton, West London, and it was clear she was not happy. She was recording a video along their walk, in which she can be heard insulting him and telling him to “stop crying.”
They stopped at a cafe, where she went to the bathroom and locked herself inside, knowing he wouldn’t leave without her. Little did he know, she had arranged for Raza to meet him there.
When the time came, she was ready. She sat, smoking a cigarette as Raza Khan arrived by minicab at about 6:30pm. He came walking toward her with a large knife, and confronted Khalid, who only had a screwdriver for defense. The fight lasted only 15 seconds, when Raza plunged his knife into Khalid’s heart.
CCTV cameras captured the whole thing, including Fatima’s reaction. After Raza fled the scene, she approached her boyfriend and began to film him, as he lay dying in a pool of his own blood. She didn’t call the police, nor did she ask anyone else to. She didn’t even try to help him as he lay there helpless.
Witnesses who were trying to help Khalid, challenged her, asking what she was doing, was she going to put the videos online?
Well, if you looked at her social media that day, that’s exactly what she did. She posted an image of her dying boyfriend with the caption, “That’s what happens when you f*** with me.”
When she was questioned by police, she told them she had been arguing with her boyfriend. In fact, she had filmed part of their fight and posted it online. As for the video of Khalid dying, she claimed she was terrified and had posted the video as a “plea for help.” But at the time, with witnesses nearby, she made no such pleas.
She could be heard in one video calling a friend from another phone, asking to be picked up. “Where the f*** are you? You need to hurry the f*** up. Everything’s got f***ed.”
When asked why she didn’t call emergency services after the attack, she claimed she couldn’t get her fingers to use the keypad on her phone – yet she was able to video and post several images/messages to Snapchat. And afterward, she took an Uber home – which she posted online with the caption, “Uber long life.”
Fatima never reported the incident, and if it wasn’t for a relative of Khalid’s who contacted police days later and gave them her address, she may have never been implicated.
Fatima Khan was arrested and originally charged with murder, a charge that was dropped to joint enterprise murder, with an alternative of manslaughter or conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.
Since Snapchat pictures and videos are automatically deleted after 24 hours, you would think the prosecution would have a difficult time proving their case. However, one of the group of friends who followed her online posts recorded the message, which was used as evidence in her trial.
Fatima told the court she had wanted to leave the scene before anything happened. But the prosecution argued this was contradicted by the fact she returned to film Khalid as he lay dying on the pavement.
When asked why she filmed him bleeding on the ground, she said, “It is so shameful. It’s disgusting. It wasn’t even directed at Khalid – the message wasn’t for him.
“I was just tired of it, getting assaulted before and him punching me again. I just wrote that so that people didn’t try to assault me or harrass me.”
Her lawyer Kerim Fuad, QC, told the court: “She may be Ilford’s Snapchat Queen. I do not say that to make light of it, but she is another example of a youngster who seems to live her life through the prism of Snapchat. You may think she sees more of life through her phone than with her eyes.”
After her trial, Detective Chief Inspector, Mark Cranwell said, “Fatima used social media to bring about a confrontation between two young men vying for her affection. She lured Khalid to a spot pre-arranged with the suspect who was named in court as Raza Khan. She posted a series of antagonizing posts which she knew full well could, at the very least, result in serious harm coming to Khalid.” He went on to label her as “perverse” and “callous.”
“It’s a product of a mobile telephone driven obsession. It’s not healthy,” he admitted.
In the end, Fatima Khan was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for 14 years. Raza Khan remains at large, and a £5,000 reward for information on his whereabouts is being offered by the independent charity Crimestoppers.
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