A man whipped himself until he bled during a Muslim religious ceremony, before allegedly forcing two teenage boys to do the same, a court has heard

Syed Mustafa Zaidi, 44, is accused of encouraging the boys, aged 13 and 15, to beat themselves at a community centre in Manchester. Manchester Crown Court was played a film showing Zaidi beating himself with a whip made of knives and chains. Zaidi, of Station Road, Eccles, denies two counts of child cruelty. It is the first case of its kind ever to be prosecuted in Brtain. The 20-minute video shown to the court showed the Shia Muslim Ashura ceremony in Levenshulme, with Zaidi bare-chested among a crowd of about 150 men, chanting and singing. He then used the whip - called a zanjeer zani - on himself. Participants at the men-only event take it in turns, in small groups, to flog themselves, while the crowd around them chant the name of Husayn, a central figure in the Shia faith whose death they are commemorating. The film played to the court also showed the 13-year-old boy, who Zaidi is accused of forcing, flogging himself with the zanjeer zani.