Handyman, 51, admits to killing doctor and teen daughter, 14, after claiming ‘supernatural spirits’ killed the pair
A HANDYMAN today admitted murdering a doctor and her teenage daughter after claiming supernatural spirits had been responsible for their deaths.
Shahbaz Khan, 51, changed his plea to guilty and admitted killing Dr Saman Mir Sacharvi, 49, and Vian Mangrio, 14, in Burnley, Lancashire.
The bodies of his two victims had been discovered in their fire-damaged home.
The killer's plea comes after he last week told Preston Crown Court he believed another person entered the house and killed them after he left the home around 10pm on September 30 last year.
After his arrest he claimed that supernatural spirits, known in the Islamic faith as jinns, had been responsible for the deaths.
Khan, from Burnley, also admitted a third count of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.
His wife, Rabia Shahbaz, 45, denies doing an act intended to pervert the course of public justice by giving a false alibi for Khan, and remains on trial.
Trial judge Mr Justice Goss told jurors: "That is the end of the case as far as Shahbaz Khan is concerned. You don't need to consider his case any further.
"His wife remains on trial and you will have to return a verdict in her case."
The trial was adjourned until Thursday.
Prosecutor David McLachlan QC, said the defendant, a former computer network engineer in his native Pakistan, strangled Dr Sacharvi and then attacked her daughter when she returned from school.
He was then said to have set fires at the property, including the severe burning of Miss Mangrio in the lounge, an attempt to set Dr Sacharvi alight in the upstairs front bedroom, and another blaze in the kitchen.
The bodies were discovered on October 1.
Khan was arrested after CCTV footage on September 30 showed him visiting the home where he previously carried out various repairs.
Police later found jewellery worth tens of thousands of pounds belonging to Dr Sacharvi in a loft at Khan's home.
He claimed the doctor had asked him to keep for "security purposes" whenever she left the country.
Also recovered from his address was a purple Samsung phone which contained Google searches on the morning of September 30 for "obsessed" and "defined obsessed".