Jurors to visit Yeates murder scene

Joanna Yeates died slowly and painfully at the hands of her nextdoor neighbour, a court heard
12 April 2012

Jurors trying the neighbour accused of murdering Joanna Yeates are to set foot inside her flat.

After inspecting the scene of her death, they visit the verge where her body was found on Christmas Day.

Mr Justice Field told jurors they will arrive as normal at court before being taken by coach on a tour to various significant sites.

Miss Yeates suffered 43 injuries after being attacked by Vincent Tabak inside the flat in Clifton, Bristol, the jury was told. Miss Yeates, 25, was said to have suffered a slow and painful death as she was strangled by the "cold and calculated" killer.

Tabak's QC William Clegg asked the jury to consider four areas closely during the visit. Mr Clegg said he wanted jurors to consider the time and distance it would take to walk from the Hophouse public house to Miss Yeates's home. He also asked them to consider carefully the view from the kitchen window inside her flat.

"It is that view from that kitchen that you have of somebody walking past outside because the kitchen is set below ground level," Mr Clegg said. "It is important because the defence case is view from that window, is where the two people - Joanna Yeates and Vincent Tabak - first saw each other that night before the events that led up to her death."

Mr Clegg also asked the jury to cross over Canynge Road to No 53 and stand by the front door. "We would like you to go there and have in mind, having already been to No 44, whether in your judgment you think it possible that the scream that was made inside the flat of No 44 could possibly be heard if you are standing outside No 53?," he said. "The defence are going to suggest that it was by no means certain that the scream that was heard was connected to this event at all because of the distance involved."

Finally, Mr Clegg asked jurors to walk the short distance to Percival Court, which is adjacent to the rear of Miss Yeates's flat at 44 Canynge Road.

Prosecutors claim Tabak, 33, kept his crime secret for more than six weeks before confessing to a prison chaplain.

Dutch engineer Tabak admits manslaughter but denies murder at Bristol Crown Court.

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