'Just finish it here,' Shafilea Ahmed's mother told her husband as they suffocated her with a plastic bag, daughter tells court

Younger sister Alesha broke down in tears as she described the moment Shafilea was allegedly killed for being 'westernised'



Shafilea's eyes were 'really wide... You could tell she was gasping for air', Alesha said

Jury hears victim 'wet herself because she was struggling so much'



Shafilea lost 5st after drinking bleach in fear she was going to be left in Pakistan by her family

She went to the bathroom 'and a few minutes later everybody heard a scream,' Alesha said



Shafilea argued with mother after she was seen out of the house without wearing a shawl, court told



Parents Iftikhar and Farzana deny murdering their daughter in 2003

'Murdered': The sister of Shafilea Ahmed (pictured) broke down in tears as she was cross examined

The mother of a girl allegedly murdered for defying her strict Muslim parents began the fatal attack with the words 'Just finish it here', a court heard yesterday.

As Shafilea Ahmed's younger brother and sisters watched, an argument which began over the 17-year-old wearing a skimpy T-shirt ended with her parents pushing a plastic bag in her mouth and suffocating her on the settee, the jury was told.

Her younger sister Alesha, then just 15, said she saw Shafilea's eyes bulging as she gasped for breath and kicked out while Iftikhar Ahmed and his wife Farzana held their hands over her face.

She told the jury that after the couple pushed Shafilea's limp body on to the floor, her father punched the teenager once in the chest at the family home in Warrington.

That evening, she said, their 13-year-old brother Junyade told his surviving sisters: 'She deserved it.'

Shafilea's remains were found on a riverbank in Cumbria five months later. But it was not until 2010 that Alesha – now 23 – came forward to give her account of the killing.

Giving evidence from behind a screen at Chester Crown Court for a second day, Alesha said her sister wanted to continue in the sixth form of her secondary school to further her ambition of becoming a lawyer.

However her parents objected because of the westernised lifestyle she and her friends there had led, so she went to a nearby college instead. Shafilea also got a part-time telesales job after lessons, the court heard, and would be picked up by one of her parents every evening.

On September 11, 2003, said Alesha, she accompanied her mother to bring Shafilea home. The 17-year-old was wearing a lilac V-neck T-shirt and white trousers made from stretchy material with ties at the hips, while she was carrying a cardigan.

Asked about their mother's reaction by prosecutor Andrew Edis, QC, she answered: 'She wasn't happy about her being in just a T-shirt.' When they got home, Mrs Ahmed spoke to her taxi driver husband, and the argument about 'her not wearing her jumper' continued in the living room, she added.

Accused of murder: Shafilea's mother Farzana Ahmed, left, and Iftikhar Ahmed, right, deny murder

The mother then passed Shafilea's bags to her son to search for money and boys' numbers, which was normal practice.

After he found cash including a £20 note, the argument escalated, Alesha added, as the siblings plus their two younger sisters – aged 12 and seven – looked on.

Then, she told the jury: 'My mum said "Just finish it here" to my dad.' She said her mother had spoken the words in Urdu.

Alesha said her mother then pushed Shafilea on to the settee before both parents started hitting her and one said: 'Grab a bag.'

Family home: The Ahmeds lived in this house in Warrington, Cheshire

Sobbing and taking long pauses, she continued: 'They put it in her mouth and put their hands over her.' As her mother dabbed at her eyes in the dock, Alesha told the jury her father had held Shafilea down as she kicked out desperately.

Alesha said her sister's eyes were 'just open, really wide' and 'you could tell she was just gasping for air'. Finally, she said, Shafilea stopped struggling: 'That was it – she was gone.' But she added: 'They carried on with their hands still on her mouth, even when she had stopped struggling.'

Her father pulled Shafilea's body off the settee 'and straight after that he just punched her in the chest for no reason, just once'.