SHAFILEA TRIAL: Telling police about murder 'was relief' (From Warrington Guardian)
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SHAFILEA TRIAL: Telling police about murder 'was relief'
1:22pm Thursday 24th May 2012 in News
Shafilea Ahmed
THE sister of Great Sankey High School pupil Shafilea Ahmed told a jury it was a 'relief' to tell police that her parents had murdered the 17-year-old.
Alesha Ahmed told Chester Crown Court this morning that she revealed what had happened after being arrested for robbery at the Liverpool Road home in 2010.
Her parents, Iftikhar, aged 52, and Farzana, aged 49, are accused of murdering 17-year-old Shafilea at the family home in September 2003.
The both deny murder.
Alesha, aged 23, disclosed that she witnessed the murder to her solicitor and a police officer while she was in custody after arranging a robbery at the family home in Liverpool Road, Warrington.
Questioned by Andrew Edis QC, for the prosecution, about why she made the claim after all these years, Alesha said: "I think at that point I was really suffering with the family (and) the build-up to the robbery.
"It all got too much, and to be honest I think it was a relief more than anything to be able to tell someone finally."
Asked why she had kept quiet for all those years, she replied: "I think it was not until I went to uni I saw how wrong family life was.
"When you get used to something, it becomes normal and that's when I saw it wasn't normal, really.
"I think what happened to my sister was wrong but because it's your parents you think it's normal because you still love them.
"I think at uni I did feel the way my sister had - you want to fit in with everyone else but you are still being forced to live in a different way.
"I think that's what made me crack."
