THE jury in the trial of a man accused of murdering ex-Pendle schoolgirl Jayden Parkinson was sent home yesterday and will resume deliberations on Thursday.

Ben Blakeley, 22, has admitted killing 17-year-old Jayden, who studied at Colne Primet High, and burying her near Didcot in Oxfordshire, but has denied the girl’s murder.

A panel of six men and six women heard at Oxford Crown Court that Jayden died at the hands of violent and controlling ex-partner Blakeley in the countryside on December 3 last year, just hours after she told him she was expecting his baby.

Blakeley, of Christchurch Road, in Reading, Berkshire, has admitted manslaughter and perverting the course of justice.

His younger brother Jake Blakeley, 17, of Venners Water, Didcot, denies a charge of preventing lawful burial, but has also admitted perverting the course of justice.

The court previously heard that after strangling the teenager, the former binman enlisted the help of his brother to bury Jayden’s body in their uncle's grave at All Saints’ Church in Didcot.

The jury is to now separate for two days to allow one of its number to attend a hospital appointment and will return to court to continue deliberations at 10am on Thursday.