Jury sent out to consider verdict in Chichester murder trial

Neale James, 51, is accused of carrying out the pre-meditated murder of his 78-year-old mother, Brenda James, who lived at the Lakeside Holiday Park, in Vinnetrow Road.

The jury retired at 11.40am today (Thursday, November 24), after hearing more than three weeks of evidence.

The prosecution allege that the defendant, who does not have a permanent address in the area, pre-dug the grave for his mother in the woods near Pilleygreen Hill on the Goodwood Estate, and killed buried her deliberately on March 17, this year.

The defence claim that he lost control during an argument while the pair went for a walk through the woods, and he hit her with a garden instrument he found on the floor.

He says his killed her after she made nasty comments about his father and daughter, and that his mother sexually abused him after his father died when he was a teenager.

Find out the verdict by checking the Observer website through the next few days.

For the full report read next week’s edition.