Shafilea Ahmed murder trial

Shafilea Ahmed's teacher saw injuries which the teenager claimed were caused in a "beating" from her parents, a court heard today. The teenager's parents are accused of murdering Shafilea at home in Cheshire in September 2003.

Joanne Code said Shafilea also ran away from home and said would not go back because "they are going to marry me off in Pakistan".

Mrs Code told the jury at Chester Crown Court: "I was concerned that if she said too much it might make life difficult for her. It was a very direct question I needed to ask her, I asked whether or not I needed to be worried about her welfare - which she replied 'Yes'."

The teacher informed her father Iftikhar Ahmed that Shafilea needed to sign papers if they wanted her to leave her studies. The next day, Mrs Code said that Shafilea came in with a "bruise to her neck and a cut on her lip", claiming that her mother and father had "taken turns in beating her".

Follow Shafilea's trial at ITV Granada.

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When the prosecution asked Mevish Ahmed is she had said that her mother had broken Shafilea's finger in Pakistan, she replied "no".

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When the prosecution asked Mevish Ahmed if she was scared she would be sedated like Shafilea if she went to Pakistan, she replied "no".

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When asked if she had attempted to intimidate a witness in these proceedings with silent calls, Mevish Ahmed told the court it was just a joke.

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Mevish Ahmed breaks down in the witness box as she gives her evidence.

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When asked if she had said that Shafilea had wet the sofa Mevish Ahmed told the court: "I may have written that down in the past". Then when she was asked if she had destroyed the document she replied, "I may have done".

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I am at Chester Crown Court listening to the evidence of Mevish Ahmed, the sister of Shafilea Ahmed, in the case where her parents, Iftikhar and Farzana, are accused of murdering the teenager.

Mevish Ahmed told the court she did not recall saying "her (Shafilea's) eyes were wide open while she was being suffocated to death". When she was asked if she has problems with her memory she said "I don't recall everything that I've said."

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The cross examination of the sister of Shafilea Ahmed continues later today as she gives evidence against her parents, who are accused of killing her.

Last week the court heard that the events surrounding the teenager's death had "haunted" her for seven years.

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Closing his questioning Andrew Edis QC asked: "Why did you keep silent for all those years?"

It wasn't until I went to uni that I saw how wrong family life is. When you get used to something it seems normal. That's when I saw it wasn't normal.

I knew what had happened to my sister was wrong but because it's your own parents you don't see how bad it is because you still love them.

I think I felt like my sister in that I did want to fit in with everyone else but you're being forced to live in a different way, that's what made me crack.

Asked if she was a practising Muslim during university she said she wasn't initially but was by the end. Describing her lifestyle as a student she said she was "just like a western student".

In a final question Andrew Edis QC asked what made you speak out?

I think I'd just had enough. My mental state wasn't very good being between the two cultures, trying to please everyone, it just wasn't me anymore.

I was doing things out of character, turning to drink at university and the robbery I committed. I wasn't being myself. I just had to let it out. It had haunted me for a long time what happened to my sister.

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