The daughter of convicted murderer Zoora Shah fought back tears last night to tell supporters: "We can't cope without our mother."

Naseem Shah, 24, who took charge of the family when her mother was imprisoned in 1994, struggled to maintain composure as she told her story to an audience of 80 women.

A public meeting at Bradford College had been organised by campaigners fighting for Mrs Shah's freedom. The mother-of-three, serving life for the murder of Mohammed Azam, has won leave to appeal against her conviction in a four-day hearing starting in London on March 31.

Her legal team will argue she was driven to kill Azam - brother of prominent community leader Sher Azam- because of a 12-year catalogue of sexual and physical abuse.

She snapped and slipped arsenic in his food, she claims, because he began making overtures towards her two daughters.

Last night's public meeting attracted an audience which included many women from Bradford's Asian community. Many were in tears as Miss Shah described the strain placed on the family by her mother's six-year imprisonment, first in Durham, now in Holloway. "It gets harder each time to visit her," she said. "Leaving her behind is worst - even though all of us are holding back tears to try to support each other.

"I was 18 when this whole episode started and we are finding it hard to cope without our mother. My brother and sister lost their teenage years, my younger sister lost the only parent she ever knew at the age of eleven."

She added: "We just want to live like a normal family. I hope people find it in their hearts to support our mother's campaign. She is not a cold-blooded killer but a mother who wants to be reunited with her three children."

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