Murdered teen claimed parents beat her
Updated on 09 January 2008
The inquest into the death of a teenage girl whose body was found on a riverbank has heard her parents allegedly beat and robbed her.
Shafilea Ahmed, 17, of Warrington, Cheshire, also feared they planned to send her to Pakistan for an arranged marriage and that she would never return from there, the inquest heard.
The allegations were made by homelessness officer Anne-Marie Woods, from whom Shafilea sought advice in February 2003.
Ms Woods said: "Shafilea said she had been staying with friends and she had nowhere to live and she was fleeing domestic violence and an arranged marriage that her parents had arranged for her."
The inquest at the County Hall in Kendal, Cumbria, was read a personal statement written by the teenager.
It said: "Over the past few years I've been experiencing domestic violence by my parents. My parents are going to send me to Pakistan and I'll be married to someone and left there."
Shafilea was seen by schoolmates with with bruises and a cut lip and had spoken of a "build up of violence" and beatings from her mother and father, who she claimed stole her £2,000 savings and tried to stop her from going to college.
She dreamt of going to university to become a lawyer but was "torn" between her family and religion and her ambitions, the inquest was told.
Her body was found in the River Kent near Sedgwick in Cumbria in February 2004.
Shafilea was most likely strangled or suffocated but the exact cause of death could not be determined as the body was too decomposed, pathologists said.
Mr Ahmed and his wife Farzana were arrested on suspicion of her kidnap in December 2003 and later released on police bail.
No one has ever been charged over her death and her parents both strenuously deny any involvement in her disappearance.
Five other relatives, believed to be based in Yorkshire, who were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, were also released on police bail.
Ms Woods said: "She said there had been an escalation of violence since she was 15/16 and that one parent would hold her down and the other would hit her."
She added, "She came across as being genuinely frightened of this impending arranged marriage."
Melissa Powner, a friend at the same school, Great Sankey High in Warrington, said Shafilea ran away from home in February 2003 but her father turned up at school to take the "petrified" youngster home.
"She was crying hysterically. She didn't try to run, she just froze. She was saying 'don't let him take me' and mouthing to me when she was in the car," she said.
Another friend, Kate Pearson, saw the girl at college.
"She had a cut on her lip," she said. "That led on to her telling us about her problems at home and the arranged marriage. She was really afraid."
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