The daughter of tragic Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar has been accused of killing her two-year-old son.

Samaya Rafiq, 27, formerly known as Lorraine Dunbar, appeared in the dock at Bradford Magistrates' Court yesterday to face alternative charges of manslaughter relating to her son, Harris Dunbar.

One alleges manslaughter on the basis of an unlawful act while the alternative accuses her on the grounds of gross negligence, both on July 16 last year. Rafiq, of Wheatley Close, White Abbey, Bradford, is also charged with four counts of child neglect between January 1 and July 17 last year.

Dark-haired, pony-tailed Rafiq, who wore a brown zip-up cardigan and jeans, looked distressed during yesterday's hearing. She stared at the ground and supported her head in her hand.

Rafiq, whose husband sat at the back of the court, spoke quietly to confirm her name, address and date of birth.

District Judge Richard Clews sent her case to Bradford Crown Court, where it will next be heard on January 18. Barrister Yunis Valli, representing Rafiq, applied for bail, which was opposed by prosecutor Christopher Foren.

Judge Clews remanded her in custody after telling her he did not have enough information to make a decision about bail. But he said her solicitors would make a bail application to the crown court as soon as possible. Rafiq was handcuffed to a woman security officer before being led from the dock.

Police started an investigation after Harris died on Sunday, July 16, last year.

Paramedics were called to a hostel for women, where he was living with his mother, in Allerton, Bradford, to a report that a child had stopped breathing.

An inquest into his death was opened and adjourned in September. The cause of death was said to be methadone poisoning. Rafiq was arrested in August and released on police bail. She was charged after answering her bail on Tuesday.

A full multi-agency Serious Case Review into Harris's death is under way, led by the local Safeguarding Board for Children.

Andrea Dunbar rose to fame with her controversial play, Rita, Sue and Bob Too, a bawdy comedy which portrayed the Buttershaw estate as a place of teenage promiscuity and casual sex.

Andrea was a 21-year-old single mother when she wrote the play, later turned into a film. But by the age of 29, in 1990, she was dead from a brain haemorrhage.

Her brother, Nigel, died from a heart attack, aged just 37, after collapsing on the street on the Buttershaw estate five years ago.

e-mail: steve.wright@bradford.newsquest.co.uk