A teenage girl has told a jury how she was threatened by the wife of a Keighley man she claimed indecently assaulted her.

Bradford Crown Court heard Shabir Ahmed's wife Shameem Akhtar and his girlfriend Barbara McMeekin were both allegedly involved in attempts to intimidate her into dropping the case.

Akhtar, 27, of Belgrave Road, Keighley, and McMeekin, 19, of Gaythorpe Street, Great Horton, Bradford, went on trial yesterday accused of intimidating the youngster last March. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutor Simon Hickey said it was the Crown's case that comments and threats were made to obstruct, pervert or interfere with the course of justice.

Speaking via a television link the girl, now 14, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she had been at her friend McMeekin's then home in Cartmell Road, Keighley, when Shabir Ahmed arrived.

She said she ran upstairs to hide. Later McMeekin took her to Ahmed's home and she met Akhtar for the first time.

She said Akhtar gave her some juice and then told her she would have to go to the police station. "She was saying, 'How would you like it if you were pregnant and your husband was going to prison?'" said the girl.

"I was just agreeing with her because I was scared." Mr Hickey asked why and she replied: "Because she kept going on about getting people from Leeds and my family would not be standing in Keighley anymore."

The girl alleged McMeekin was agreeing with Akhtar and telling her she had to do it.

She stayed at McMeekin's that night and next morning, she alleged, Akhtar pulled up in her car as the two were walking in West Lane. She said Akhtar called them over and they got in. "She was saying to me, 'Just tell the police you're sick and tired of them messing you around'."

Akhtar is alleged to have dropped the girl off about 200 yards from the police station.

During cross-examination by Akhtar's barrister, Michelle Colborne, the girl conceded she had been having arguments with her parents and had been involved in violence towards them.

She accepted that, initially, she was reluctant to make a complaint about the alleged incident involving Ahmed.

She agreed that, at Akhtar's house, she had been shown her children and some of her clothing and had expressed sympathy for Akhtar.

"She didn't intimidate you at all did she?" asked Miss Col-borne. "In a way yes,'' said the girl. "By getting in the car and telling all these things to me."

"But on the night before?" asked Miss Colborne: "No, not on the night before."

She agreed Akhtar had not forced her into the car.

The trial continues.