A woman accused of persuading her lover to kill her daughter created a whole family of fictitious characters to support her far-fetched lies, a court heard today.

Kiki Muddar made about 15 fake Facebook profiles to make her network of imaginary people seem real, including one for a non-existent boyfriend whom she claimed had raped her.

She also lied about having cancer to her friend Debbie Davey, whose son was undergoing treatment for leukaemia, and told her that a different fictitious boyfriend, Dave, had been killed in the London riots.

Ms Davey explained how although she was at times sceptical about Ms Muddar’s stories, she didn’t understand why she would make them up.

“Not someone that was supposed to love my son, you wouldn’t put someone through that,” she said.

“I cared a lot [about her]. I thought I was going to lose my son and my friend.”

Ms Muddar, 43, whose address was given in court as Green Lane, Ilford, and Ms Chowdhury, 35, are jointly accused of killing eight-year-old Ayesha Ali, who was found dead in the flat they shared in Broomfield Road, Chadwell Heath, on August 29, 2013.

Ms Chowdhury received texts from the imaginary Dave from beyond the grave, along with messages from Skyman, a Muslim spirit created by Ms Muddar. The Old Bailey heard how Skyman gave permission for Ms Chowdhury to send explicit images of herself to Ms Muddar and even told her that Allah would forgive her for it.

A witness statement from Julie Ahmed, one of Ms Chowdhury’s sisters, which was read out in court described how Ayesha was a chatterbox, well behaved at school and “very intelligent” for her age.

But Ms Ahmed noted how the family became “withdrawn” after Ms Chowdhury moved in with Ms Muddar.

“She [Chowdhury] lost a significant amount of weight, as did the children, and their personalities seemed to change,” she said.

Both Ms Chowdhury and Ms Muddar deny murder and alternative charges of manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of a child between March and August 2013.

The trial continues.