A mother, alleged to have sat and watched as her husband tortured their sons, yesterday told a jury she would do anything to protect her children.

The 38-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told Bradford Crown Court she cared for and loved her children and could not imagine hurting them.

Her 47-year-old husband, who also cannot be named, is alleged to have tortured their two sons by slicing their mouths with scalpel blades and putting safety pins through their tongues.

The fervent Christian is alleged to have used clothes pegs to clamp the wounds and stitched them up with a domestic medical kit at their Bradford home. It is claimed his wife did nothing as he inflicted pain on them.

Giving evidence on the sixth week of the trial, she denied throwing pepper in one boy's eyes, or putting the children in a cold bath.

She said the Christian faith was important to her. "It makes me have inspiration. Sometimes it helps me to put my family in order in a Christian way," she said.

She said she went to church with her husband every Sunday and to Bible studies on a Wednesday. Once or twice a week they held prayer meetings at their house, with the children, when her husband presided as a sort of preacher.

The mother said her children had been brought up according to the Bible.

She has pleaded not guilty to three charges of cruelty. Her husband has denied three charges of wounding and eight of cruelty. The offences are alleged to have happened between 2003 and 2005.

The trial continues.