A mother accused of murdering her son and burning his body to destroy the evidence claimed she lived in fear for her life today.

Sara Ege, 32, accused her husband and his brother of acting together to kill son Yaseem, seven, and burn his body.

A sobbing Ege claimed she was afterwards beaten and her life threatened unless she told police she was the murderer.

Ege collapsed in court as she was questioned about her son's death and only continued giving evidence with a nurse at her side.

She then accused husband Yousef Ali Ege, 38, of killing their son and said his brother Nasser burned the dead body.

Ege, of Pontcanna, Cardiff, is accused of beating her seven-year-old son "like a dog" with a stick.

The beatings were so brutal that in July 2010 he died from his injuries. A panicked Ege then burned his body, it is alleged.

Ege denies murder. Her taxi driver husband denies allowing the child's death by not stopping his wife's alleged beatings.

Ege later confessed to murder and claimed the Devil and voices in her head pressed her to beat her defenceless son.

Today she told a Cardiff Crown Court jury her home was filled with evil spirits called Jinn, and the Devil still spoke to her.

But she insisted that she "loved to bits" her son and claimed she was forced to confess to murder after a beating and threats from her brother-in-law.

Ege, a practising Muslim, was a bride from India in an arranged marriage originally conceived and carried out over just five days.

As a maths graduate she claims she expected a well educated and successful husband but found he was a postman and part-time taxi driver.

Both she and her husband were questioned briefly by police when it appeared Yaseem's death was a tragic accident.

An examination later found he had suffered broken ribs, a fractured arm and finger and significant abdominal injuries.

The couple were then arrested and questioned and Ege eventually went on to admit to killing her son in police interviews.

She later retracted the confession and claimed her husband habitually beat Yaseem and caused the injuries that killed him.

Her husband's brother then used barbecue gel and a lighter to burn the body.

Traces of gel found on her clothes after arrest were from an earlier barbecue, she claims.

Ege insisted today that Nasser threatened and beat her after her release on bail because she failed to confess to murder.

She said that both she and husband Yousef were released to her brother-in-law's home in Cardiff where she was at his mercy.

"He was angry and started hitting me in front of his wife," she said through a sobbing voice.

"He said that I should tell the police that everything that had happened to him I had done it. He threatened to kill me if I did not say to the police what he said."

She added that Nasser told her: "I should take all the blame and say the medication I was taking has done this to me and say that the Devil has told me to burn the body."

Ege said as a result she admitted beating Yaseem with a stick and burning his body, adding that her husband knew nothing about it.

She also claimed that she was encouraged to make a similar confession to her own GP who recorded details of what she said.

Ege was later admitted to a psychiatric unit and continues to reside in one during the trial.

She said today that voices in her head had never told her to hit her son or burn his dead body.

But she admitted that she had been hearing voices in her head for the last year and believed in evil spirits.

She agreed that she believed that evil spirits called Jinn, which are mentioned in the Koran, live at her Cardiff address.

She still also hears voices in her head on a regular basis: "They say the same thing. That my life is not worth living and I will be dead soon," she said.