JEALOUSY, honour and cultural pressures were at the heart of Shafilea Ahmed’s murder, according to a leading criminal psychologist.

David Holmes believes both parents were involved in the murder as mum Farzana would not have been able to overpower the 17-year-old without her husband Iftikhar’s help.

But the PhD psychologist of more than 15 years added that the Great Sankey schoolgirl’s mum had the ‘higher motives’.

Mr Holmes said: “Within families there are often levels of jealousy which is one of the main motives for homicide within a family.

“It perhaps makes the mother the perpetrator as there is another layer of anger directed at her daughter.

“It’s very difficult for a person to see someone else going out and enjoying themselves and having a free life without control which can build jealousy.”

Throughout the case the prosecution suggested the teenager had been killed because she was contacting boys and wearing western clothes.

Mr Holmes, aged 59, said it is often hard for ‘other cultures’ to understand the pressures surrounding an honour killing and that ‘disgrace and shame’ can have more of an impact on some families than others.

He added: “Within a family there is more tension, more involvement, more sense of ownership and entitlement in some cultural areas as parents believe they have the right to be that involved with somebody’s life because that is their child.

“It’s tragic to see individuals feel so pressured they kill their own child.”

During the 11-week trial Mr Holmes believes the Ahmeds will have been content with the ‘sense of preserving the integrity of the family’.

He added: “In terms of honour and standing the murder is secondary.”