Shafilea Ahmed's father: I didn't kill my daughter Today Mr Ahmed, a taxi driver, told the jury at Chester Crown Court that he loved his wife "to bits." Asked by his counsel, Tom Bayliss, QC, whether the allegation she was levelling against him had changed that, he replied: "No." His wife, sitting in the dock, wiped away a tear as Mr Bayliss asked: "Is what she says in that document the truth." "No," replied her husband. Mr Bayliss asked: "Have you ever caused any harm to your daughter Shafilea?" Mr Ahmed: "No." Mr Bayliss then asked whether he was responsible for her death. Again he replied: "No." Mr Ahmed describe his daughter as talented and athletic. Her best subject was art, but in all areas of her academic life she was "absolutely brilliant." He added: "She was a character in herself: very bubbly, very talkative, everything a child should be. She was special in her own way. She wanted to become a lawyer and I totally agreed with it. I approved. Asked how he and his wife had felt when they were arrested, originally on suspicion of kidnapping Shafilea, he replied: "We didn't expect it. That was a shock in itself. There was constant finger-pointing, like the parents are involved one way or another. It had been "devastating" to be accused of murder, but as the trial had come closer he and his wife had brought he and his wife closer. It has made us come closer because we've actually been fighting as a family, fighting to achieve justice for our daughter. We want to know what's happened to her. That's been the case from Day One. Mr Bayliss asked whether he thought he would ever know what had happened to Shafilea. We would hope to, but I don't think we ever will. He had "no problems" with the friends she had, and would have been content for her to have boyfriends had they known of any. "If she liked the person, then fine," he told the jury. Asked what his attitude would have been to a boyfriend in his late twenties, he replied: "If she wants to go out with older men, personally it would not have been to my taste. I would have asked her to pick someone of her own age. He denied that there was any plan for Shafilea to go through with an arranged marriage, but confirmed he had received an offer on her behalf. At the time I said I didn't wish to discuss it until she had finished her studies. He said he first knew of Shafilea's perception of an impending marriage when she returned to school after running away from home for a second time. Two police officers met him there, and he told them: "I don't know how she got that impression." He then spoke to his daughter, telling her: "There is no marriage."