[Omah]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...recording.html

Shafilea Ahmed's mother was overheard calling her children 'daughters of pigs' and threatening to hit them on secret recordings made by the police, a court heard today.

It emerged today that Mrs Ahmed was heard 'telling off' her husband in secret recordings made by police when the bugged the family home.

In another extract, Mrs Ahmed was heard shouting at her daughters calling them "daughters of pigs " and threatening to hit them.

She said:"I was just trying to scare them. I did not mean to do what I said."

The jury was played six extracts from secret police recordings at the family house in Warrington, Cheshire made after Shafilea went missing in September 2003.

Mrs Ahmed was heard shouting at her husband in discussions about the police investigation.

Mr Edis said:"You don't sound terrified of him. You are telling him off."

She said:"Perhaps I was angry.I was suffering from depression and I was not thinking very clearly."

One extract was of the couple discussing the possibility of their house being bugged by police and Mr Edis said:" You were worried because there was a secret to be kept. You were working together as a team to make sure the cover up was effective."

Mother of five Mrs Ahmed replied:"I had not done anything. I was frightened."

Mr Edis said:"You have stayed with a murderer for nine years. You have operated as a team."

She replied:"I am telling the truth. I have never been part of a team.I have not taken part in anything."

She admitted that the " hundreds of hours " of recordings did not show any signs of violence toward her or any examples of her asking her husband what had become of Shafilea.

She said:"Obviously he did not threaten me 24 hours a day but there were several occasions."

Mr Edis said the taped conversations showed that " you were planning a defence strategy with him because you had done the murder with him."

She replied:"No."

Mr Edis said in a third conversation played to the jury about a trip to Pakistan she was "telling him off."

She said: "That is my normal voice.I was not shouting at my husband.My husband will not allow me to shout at him. In our culture women do not shout at their husbands. It is my normal voice. It is how I speak."

Mr Edis said the extracts showed her speaking " very angrily and very aggressively " to her husband.

He said:"You were in control in the house.You were not just a domestic servant. You could stick up for yourself."

Mrs Ahmed replied:"It is different in your culture. In our culture, it is not acceptable for a woman to go against her husband's wishes."

Mr Edis said to her:" Shafilea had brought shame on your family and if there is one thing you cannot stand, it is shame. It is more important than happiness and even more important than life. That is why you killed her."

Mr Ahmed replied:"No. As I have said before, I did not kill our daughter."

When this dreadful woman is finally found guilty I hope that she is banged up for a very, very long time .....