Judge will accept a majority verdict in Rikki Neave murder trial

Jurors have been given a majority direction in the trial of a man charged with murdering schoolboy Rikki Neave in 1994.

James Watson, 40, is accused of strangling the six-year-old in woods in Peterborough, leaving his naked body posed in a star shape.

He was arrested more than 20 years later after DNA on Rikki’s discarded clothes was matched to him.

Watson, of no fixed abode, has denied murder.

Jurors at the Old Bailey have been deliberating on a verdict since around noon last Wednesday

Just before noon on Monday, Mrs Justice McGowan said she would accept a verdict on which at least 10 of the 12 jurors were agreed.

Shortly before 4.30pm, the judge sent the jurors home and told them to return on Wednesday to continue their deliberations.