A firefighter sent to help a pregnant woman allegedly pushed to her death off an Edinburgh landmark was told by a man that he had accidentally bumped into her while attempting to take a selfie, a murder trial has been told.
Sean Stratford told jurors he was approached by the man while attempting to help Fawziyah Javed, who suffered fatal injuries in the fall from Arthur’s Seat in September 2021.
He told a court that the man claimed the 31-year-old mother-to-be had fallen off the hill after he bumped into her while trying to get a selfie.
Ms Javed and her unborn child both died shortly after the fall. Her husband Kashif Anwar, 29, from Leeds, is on trial accused of her murder.
He denies all the charges against him, including one of acting in a threatening and abusive way towards his wife at a hotel in Edinburgh the day before the alleged murder.
Mr Stratford, who gave evidence to the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday, was one of the emergency responders dispatched to the scene just after 9pm.
He told the trial that rescue crews could not find Ms Javed when they arrived but a man approached them to assist and pointed out the area.
The firefighter said he could not remember if the man identified himself as the injured woman’s husband or not.
Mr Stratford told the court: “He said that he stood up to take a selfie, he slipped and bumped her and she had fallen.”
Mr Stratford said the man seemed to be “calm” as he spoke with him at the scene.
Defending, Ian Duguid KC played a 999 recording of Anwar in which he told ambulance call handlers of the incident and could be heard shouting to people who had managed to reach Ms Javed.
But Mr Stratford said the man who had spoken to him did not sound the same way. He also confirmed that Anwar had not mentioned a selfie during the emergency call.
Read more:
Pregnant woman ‘pushed to her death’ was scared of heights, court told
‘I heard a woman scream’
On Monday, the court heard from Claire Pentony, 33, who had been on the hill at the time of the alleged incident and also called 999.
She told advocate depute Alex Prentice: “I heard what sounded like rocks falling and a woman scream and say ‘help’ at the same time.
“I know the area fairly well, I presumed somebody who didn’t had perhaps fallen or had an accident.”
The court also heard from another witness, Nicola Lilly, 44, who gave evidence about an incident in Pudsey, Leeds, a month earlier, in August 2021.
She told the court: “I just knew something wasn’t right. She was just trying to get away from him and [he] was being, sort of, aggressive towards her.”
Ms Lilly said she saw Ms Javed being “pulled about”, and that she had become concerned for her.
She told the court that Ms Javed later appeared “very upset and frightened” and identified the man as her husband.
The trial continues.
