Damilola jury continue deliberations

The jury in the Damilola Taylor murder trial at the Old Bailey are continuing their deliberations today for a second day.

The four women and seven men were sent out to consider their verdicts yesterday following a three-month trial.

Ten-year-old Damilola died in November 2000 after bleeding to death from a thigh wound caused by broken glass on the North Peckham Estate, south London.

The prosecution alleged he was stabbed with a broken bottle after being surrounded by a gang of young robbers.

But the defence claims Damilola, who had arrived in Britain from Nigeria two months earlier, could have been injured accidentally after falling on broken glass.

Two brothers, both aged 16, from south London, deny murder, manslaughter and assault with intent to rob.

The 12th juror was discharged by the judge in the closing stages of the trial for an undisclosed reason.

Two of the original four defendants were found not guilty on the directions of the judge after he threw out the evidence of a teenage girl who claimed to have seen Damilola attacked.

Before sending them out, Mr Justice Hooper told jurors they must look at all the evidence in the case.

They must decide if alleged confessions in young offender institutes were true.

And they must examine evidence of mobile phone records which showed calls were made on the brothers's phones in Bermondsey at the time Damilola's body was found in Peckham.

The judge told jurors: "Unless you are sure the defendant did not make that call, unless you are sure he lent his phone, you could not convict."