Teacher ‘saw bruising’ on girl found murdered

Shafilea Ahmed’s teacher saw injuries which the teenager claimed were caused in a “beating” from her parents, a court has heard.

Joanne Code said Shafilea also 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 home in Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003.

Mrs Code, who taught Shafilea German at Great Sankey High School, told the jury at Chester Crown Court the teenager was a “very, very good student”.

She said: “She was a very quiet young lady who didn’t draw attention to herself, but, by the same token, quite a gifted German student.”

Later, in September 2002, Mrs Code was head of sixth form when Shafilea began her A-levels.

The teacher said she was “always immaculately dressed, her hair was always straight, no make-up on and her uniform was pristine.

“Shafilea was very, very clear she wanted to be a barrister –that was her dream, that was her ambition,” she said. “She spoke really articulately about wanting to be a barrister and going into the field of law.”

Shafilea disappeared in September 2003 and her body was found on the bank of the River Kent in Cumbria the following February.

The prosecution claim she was killed by her parents because of her “Western” ways.

The couple, of Liverpool Road, Warrington, deny murder.