Murder trial told of Shafilea injuries

Saturday 23 June 2012

SHAFILEA Ahmed's teacher saw injuries which the teenager claimed were caused in a "beating" from her parents, a court heard.

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

The teenager's parents, Iftikhar, 52, and Farzana, 49, are accused of murdering Shafilea at their home in Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003.

Mrs Code, who taught Shafilea German at Great Sankey High School, yesterday told the jury at Chester Crown Court the teenager was a "very good student".In September 2002, Mrs Code was head of sixth form when Shafilea began her A-levels. She said: "She spoke really articulately about wanting to be a barrister and going into the field of law. She was exceptionally keen to go to university."Little more than a month after she joined the sixth form, Shafilea was absent and Mrs Code telephoned and spoke to Mr Ahmed. She told the jury she was "surprised" when he said Shafilea wanted to leave college and "burn her books". "It really did not stack up at all with the student that I knew and her aspirations for what she wanted to be," she added.She asked to speak to Shafilea, who was told to answer "yes" or "no". Mrs Code said: "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 said Shafilea needed to sign papers before she was allowed to leave.The next day the teenager returned to school with bruising to her neck and a cut on her lip, the teacher said, adding: "She told me her mother and father had beat her and that they had taken it in turns to do so while one held her down."She said it happened prior to being stopped coming into school [when] her parents had found out she had been texting boys."The couple deny murder.

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Murder trial told of Shafilea injuries

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