A mother convicted of murdering her Bradford-born teenage daughter has abandoned her attempts to appeal her murder conviction.

Court of Appeal judges had been due to hear the renewed application by Farzana Ahmed, 50, who along with her husband, Iftikhar, were jailed for killing their "Westernised" daughter Shafilea, 17, who they believed brought shame on the family.

Mrs Ahmed, of Liverpool Road, Great Sankey, Warrington, had been set to appear at the Court of Appeal yesterday in a bid to quash the life sentence.

But the application to appeal has now been abandoned.

It now appears Mrs Ahmed will serve 25 years in prison.

The appeal had already been rejected by one judge in January, but was due to be heard by a further three judges today.

The teenager's decomposed remains were discovered in the River Kent in Cumbria in February, 2004. The court had heard how she had been suffocated with a plastic bag in 2003 in front of their other children at their home in Warrington.

Sentencing the pair last August, Mr Justice Roderick Evans told them they would both serve a minimum of 25 years in prison.

Shafilea had lived with her parents in Girlington before the family moved to Warrington when she was young.