Kebab shop murder jury still out

The jury in the trial of a takeaway boss accused of killing a schoolgirl and joking she had "gone into the kebabs" has resumed its deliberations.

Iyad Albattikhi, 29, is accused of having sex with Charlene Downes, before she was "chopped up" and disposed of. No trace of the 14-year-old from Blackpool has ever been found.

The trial, now in its tenth week at Preston Crown Court, has heard Albattikhi owned Funny Boyz fast food shop in Blackpool.

Charlene was one a number of young white girls said to have had sex with older men who worked in the town's fast food shops.

Charlene spent her time hanging around shops on the Blackpool Promenade and was last seen on the early evening of Saturday November 1 2003.

After kissing her mother goodbye she went off on her own - and vanished off the face of the earth, the jury has heard.

A missing persons inquiry began, but police later launched a murder investigation after information "leaked out" that the girl had been "killed and chopped up".

Police bugged the defendant's flat and gathered tapes where he is alleged to have talked about having sex with Charlene, killing her and the body being eaten.

Albattikhi, a Jordanian immigrant, denies murder. His business partner and landlord Mohammed Reveshi, 50, originally from Iran, denies helping to dispose of the body.

Both men told the court they never knew Charlene.

The jury was sent home until Wednesday when it will resume its deliberation.