Leeds Crown Court heard that Yasmin Bibi Shahid, 25, who asked to be referred to as Mrs Shahid, married her husband over the phone in a secret ceremony. Later she led her in-laws to believe she was carrying his child.

But yesterday Mrs Shahid denied she told them she was pregnant after her husband, Mian Shahid Meh-mood, was murdered and that she kept up the pretence to curry favour with his family.

She said: "This is my personal thing. It has got nothing to do with my husband's murder case.

"If it gets personal, I am not going to answer."

Suzanne Goddard QC, for Arza Khan, 27, one of Mrs Shahid's brothers accused of killing her husband said: "You deliberately lied about being pregnant and you carried on with that lie because later on, Shahid's family were asking police officers if you were pregnant."

She replied: "I did not lie. They made it up themselves."

But the court heard that on February 20 last year, nine days after Mr Mehmood, 29, was shot at Great Edge Road, Warley, she saw her doctor.
Evidence suggests she said she was not pregnant but that she wanted to be and had inquired about artificial insemination.

Ms Goddard asked her: "Were you trying to get attention, Mrs Shahid, and curry favour with his family as a new widow?"

She replied: "No, I don't need anyone's attention."

But days later, Ms Goddard claimed, Mrs Shahid told a detective she was seven and a half weeks pregnant only to tell another officer she had lied.

Ms Goddard said: "You told him you weren't pregnant and that you had lied to the police and your in-laws about it."

Mrs Shahid said: "I did not lie to anyone." She rejected claims she had been manipulative, attention seeking and that she viewed the court case as a "big game".

Khan and another of her brothers, Tahir Mahmood, 22, both of Parkinson Lane, Halifax, are charged with murder alongside Naveed Mahmood, 23, of Granville Road, Sheffield; John Reeves, 54, of Adlington Road, Sheffield; and Sam Lee, 30, of Deerlands Avenue, Shef-field. All five deny murdering Mr Mehmood as part of a contract killing after Mrs Shahid's brothers found out about her secret marriage.

• Proceeding