A MAN accused of murdering his mother-in-law broke down in court as he claimed he pushed her away when she made sexual advances towards him.

Muhammed Arshad told a Preston Crown Court jury this week that mum-of-six Zainab Begum hit herself against a wall in her Accrington home and did not get up afterwards.

He had been giving evidence at the start of the defence case.

Arshad, 37, of Middleton Road, Crumpsall, Manchester, denies murdering Mrs Begum in January this year.

His brother Mohammed Khan, also 37, of the same address, denies assisting in the disposal of her body.

The Crown alleges that Arshad murdered 56-year-old Mrs Begum at her house on Burnley Road, Accrington, dismembered her body and then, together with his brother, took the body parts wrapped in bags to the Millennium takeaway on Church Street, Accrington, which they then ran.

Mrs Begum's remains have never been found. But a palm print found in her blood was allegedly made by Arshad.

Arshad told the jury that on 12 January he was sent home from his job at the Holland's Pies factory in Baxenden due to a stomach upset.

He had been told not to go back to work for at least 48 hours.

The following day he went to the Accrington takeaway and then visited his mother-in-law's address.

He went on to claim that while they were both in the kitchen, his mother-in-law rubbed her bottom to his knee. This occurred while she was taking milk from the fridge and he said it could not have happened accidentally.

He suggested she had often behaved in such a manner towards him in the past. He did not want such things to happen.

The defendant, who uses herbal medicine, also suggested that he had previously massaged his mother-in-law and that sometimes she would take his hand and place it on her bottom. After that, he said, he never massaged her again.

On 13 January, he said, he was getting changed in an upstairs bedroom at the Burnley Road address and the woman entered the room naked while he was wearing his briefs.

He said: "I became scared. I thought she had gone mad. She embraced me and said: 'Do it once'. I moved her back but she grabbed me again."

In answer to questions from his counsel, Mr Mukhtar Hussain QC, the defendant said he understood the words "do it once" to mean that she wanted to have sex. He alleged that she had grabbed hold of "his stuff".

The defendant continued: "I pushed her back. She hit herself on the wall. She didn't get up again.

"I checked her, blowing into her mouth and pressing her chest."

Earlier in the trial, Arshad's now-estranged wife Kalsoom Begum said she went on a shopping trip for tools that would later be used to chop up her mother.

Mrs Begum, who was six months pregnant when her husband was charged with murder, said the former chef told her he needed the cleaver-style tools to strip meat from lamb carcasses to make a traditional Pakistani dish at the takeaway.

Police later found a brush hook and slater's tool wrapped in a butcher's apron and hidden in the takeaway boiler room.

Mrs Begum also told how she found the washing machine at her home full of clothing belonging to Arshad and Khan.

She described her ex-husband as a money-hungry workaholic who was enthralled by dangerous weapons and never socialised.

The court heard that forensic scientists used a spray which shows up blood that the eye cannot see.

Blood was found in the bedroom, landing and bathroom of the Burnley Road home.

Pizza delivery boy Irfan Ahmed, who worked at the Millennium, told the court he was ordered by Arshad to scrub the back yard using an industrial de-greaser on the night of Mrs Begum's disappearance.

In a statement to police after his arrest Arshad admitted dismembering Mrs Begum's body in a panic after her death.

He allegedly confessed he had chopped her up with a meat cleaver and dissolved her body parts in caustic soda, bleach and vinegar.

The small pieces that were left he picked up and put in bags which he dumped behind Indian takeaways in Rusholme, Manchester - a claim police do not believe.

The trial continues.