Mum of TikToker has murder sentence appeal rejected

Image source, Leicestershire Police Image caption, Ansreen Bukhari - mother of TikTok influencer Mahek Bukhari - was convicted along with her daughter of the murder of Saqib Hussain and Hashim Ijazuddin in February 2022 By Will Jefford East Midlands Published 3 July 2026, 13:11 BST Updated 9 minutes ago The mother of a TikTok influencer, who was convicted of the murder of her lover and his friend in a high-speed car chase, has had an appeal to reduce her sentence rejected. Ansreen Bukhari, of George Eardley Close in Stoke-on-Trent, was convicted of the murder of Saqib Hussain and Hashim Ijazuddin in February 2022 alongside her daughter, Mahek Bukhari, and two other men. She was jailed for 26 years and nine months, but on Friday it was claimed the sentencing judge had failed to appropriately take into account the coercive and controlling behaviour she had suffered at the hands of Hussain. A panel of three Court of Appeal judges dismissed the claim, saying that the sentence was justified. James Millington KC, representing Ansreen, told the court that judge Timothy Spencer KC had "set the bar too high" when sentencing the 49-year-old . He said she had been subjected to coercive and controlling behaviour from Hussain, in the weeks before the crash took place, and that the police had received a report of similar behaviour from an unrelated woman. Millington argued that the "campaign" of coercive control - which is now treated like other domestic abuse offences due to the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 - should have been used as mitigation by the sentencing judge. During a three-month trial in 2023, Leicester Crown Court heard Hussain, from Banbury in Oxfordshire, had been "lured" into meeting the Bukharis on the pretence he would be given back £3,000 he said he had spent on taking his lover out during their relationship. To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video can not be played Figure caption, Watch: Police video shows the moments leading up to the crash Jurors were told Hussian had used three explicit videos of Ansreen to threaten her after their relationship ended in the weeks before his death. Instead of meeting Ansreen, Hussain and Ijazuddin - who had driven his friend to the meeting in a Tesco car park in Hamilton in Leicester as a "favour" - were ambushed and then chased by two cars. On Friday, Lord Justice Jeremy Baker, sitting at the Court of Appeal in London, said the panel was "completely satisfied" that the sentencing judge decided an appropriate starting point for the sentence. He said Ansreen had "many opportunities to stop the escalation of events", adding that mitigating circumstances had been "adequately taken into consideration". Image source, Leicestershire Police Image caption, Hashim Ijazuddin (left) and Saqib Hussain, both from Banbury in Oxfordshire, died at the scene Ansreen was found guilty of murder in August 2023 after standing trial alongside seven other people. The court was told Hussai