A 63-year-old mother told Bradford Crown Court she tried to break up a street fight between her son and a neighbour by hitting them both with her shoe.

Fazilat Nawaz said she was alerted to trouble in Ringwood Road, Canterbury, Bradford, in the early hours of September 30 last year and went outside to separate the two men.

She said her son Nadeem Nawaz, 25, was unwell at the time and she had no idea he had left the family home, taking a kitchen knife with him.

Nadeem Nawaz denies attempting to murder his next-door neighbour Mohammed ‘Raza’ Shah but admits wounding him with intent by stabbing him 16 times in the chest, abdomen and back.

Fazilat Nawaz and her daughter, Shazmeen Nawaz, 32, of Chelwood Drive, Lower Grange, Bradford, have been cleared of attempted murder on the direction of the trial judge. Both deny wounding Mr Shah with intent and unlawful wounding.

Fazilat Nawaz told the jury yesterday she had mobility problems because of back pain and feet trouble, and her eyesight was very poor.

She was asleep when she was told that Nadeem was in a fight.

“I got up quickly. I put my cardigan on. I had my phone in my hand and I shouted, ‘Call the police’,” she said from the witness box.

She told how she went empty-handed into the garden and saw Nadeem and Mr Shah on the pavement.

“I said, ‘stop fighting’. I said, ‘Nadeem, leave it, leave it’. Nobody responded. I thought it best to take my shoe off and hit them both to separate them,” she said.

She told the jury she grabbed Nadeem and pulled him backwards.

She had not seen a knife and did not realise Mr Shah had been stabbed until she saw blood on his hand.

She then told him to call an ambulance.

Fazilat Nawaz said she did not see her daughter Shazmeen outside the house and she played no part in the incident.

She apologised for lying to the police in interview by telling detectives Nadeem was outnumbered when just the two men were involved in the incident.

“I was scared and I was protecting my son,” she said.

The trial continues.