The mother of a young boy who was allegedly beaten by a mosque leader has told a jury she was offered a blank cheque to drop the case.

The woman - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - claimed Ayub Ibrahim Khalifa turned up at her house and asked her to fill in the amount after a complaint was made against him by her son.

Weeping at times, she also said he had threatened to strangle her children "one by one" and called her names.

Bradford Crown Court heard how Khalifa is alleged to have struck the eight-year-old child on the head with a bamboo stick, punched him and pushed him down stairs.

The boy's mother described how she was shocked by what she had been told and cried.

She said she saw Khalifa in September last year and on other occasions after the alleged attacks came to light.

"He offered me a blank cheque. He came to my door with his wife.

"He asked me that I can fill the amount on this blank cheque to drop the case. I asked him to go."

She said: "He started shouting and threatening me, so I had to shut the door in his face."'

The woman told the jury that Khalifa told her in Urdu: "You take this cheque. You fill the amount in. I will sign it."

She claimed that when she refused to do that Khalifa started to threaten her, saying: "You will regret it. I'm going to kill your kids."

Asked how she had found those encounters with him, she told the jury: "I was scared."

Khalifa, 39, of Percival Street, Barkerend, Bradford, has denied two charges of causing actual bodily harm, two of intimidating a witness and one of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The trial continues.