Vincent Tabak jury continue deliberations

The jury in the trial of Vincent Tabak is spending a second day trying to decide if the Dutch engineer murdered Joanna Yeates. It began its deliberations on Wednesday and remained for just under three hours in the jury room before being sent home for the night. The six men and six women were reconvening at Bristol crown court on Thursday to carry on discussing whether Tabak intended to kill or seriously harm his neighbour at his flat. Mr Justice Field, the trial judge, has told the panel to try to reach a unanimous decision. When he sent them out on Wednesday he urged them to keep emotion out of their decision. Summing up the case, the judge said it was a tragedy that 25-year-old Yeates, a "lovely young woman with a promising future", had been "robbed of her life". He said her death continued to have a devastating effect on her family and boyfriend. But he instructed the jurors not to let feelings cloud their judgment. Tabak, 33, has admitted the manslaughter of his neighbour but denies her murder. After two and a half weeks of hearing evidence and speeches from the prosecution and defence, the jury on Wednesday listened as Field gave a two-hour overview of the case. The judge told the jury that the task of deciding on a verdict was a heavy responsibility. Manslaughter was a serious offence but murder a "much graver one". He explained that for the panel to convict Tabak of murder it must be sure that he had intended to kill Yeates or cause her really serious bodily injury. Once more, the court was told that Tabak had "gained access" to Yeates's flat in Clifton, Bristol, and had strangled the landscape architect before "moving quickly" to cover his tracks, dumping her body at the side of a road. He had "embarked on a life of calculated deception", the judge said. Field reminded the jurors of Tabak's claim that he tried to kiss Yeates after she supposedly made a flirtatious remark to him. Tabak says she screamed and he put one hand over her mouth and another around her neck. The judge said an "important issue" was the duration of strangulation. Tabak says it was around 20 seconds before Yeates fell lifeless to the floor. Field pointed out that both pathologists who gave evidence during the trial expected Yeates to have struggled. Tabak says she did not struggle. The judge reminded the jury of the 43 injuries found on Yeates when her body was discovered in a mound of snow on Christmas Day last year. He suggested the jurors focus on a series of bruises as they could only have been caused in life. He also highlighted the finding that she had injuries to both sides of her head. The judge also spoke of Tabak's conduct after he killed Yeates. The Dutch national had carried out online research on topics such as manslaughter, sexual assaults and body decomposition and accepted he told a series of "calculated lies" to the police. Reminding the jury about Tabak's testimony in the witness box, the judge asked the jury to make allowances for the "stress" he was under and the fact that English is not his first language. He said the fact that the defendant had lied after the killing could help the jury assess whether he was a "truthful witness". However, the fact that he lied did not mean that he murdered Yeates. Field spelled out how crucial parts of Tabak's story had only emerged when his defence began in court. He reminded the panel that the prosecution alleged Tabak had "tailored" or "invented" his case. The judge concluded: "You may think the neck is a very vulnerable area and the defendant must have appreciated this." Tabak had said Yeates did not struggle. Was this "what one would expect", the judge asked. He said the defendant had accepted he could have left the flat during the attack but had not done so, and that he did not try to resuscitate her. "It is your task to decide if you are sure that when he strangled Joanna he intended to kill her or at the very least cause her really serious harm," said the judge. "If you are sure your verdict will be guilty. If you are not sure your verdict must be not guilty." Yeates's parents, David and Teresa, and her boyfriend, Greg Reardon, watched from the front row of the public gallery. Tabak rested his head on his clasped hands, rarely looking up. The trial continues.