THE jury in the Janet Murgatroyd re-trial was sent home for the night after failing to reach a verdict following a day of deliberations on Wednesday (June 25).

They were sent out after the judge, Mr Justice Holland, finished summing up the evidence against Andrew Greenwood who denies murdering Janet seven years ago.

Greenwood, 29, was arrested three years later when he approached police and confessed to killing her.

But he has since retracted his confession and claims he had wrongly convinced himself he was guilty.

Janet's body was found in the River Ribble at Preston about 11 hours after he allegedly attacked her.

In August 1999 he confessed that he punched and kicked her after she spurned his advances following a chance meeting as he was walking home across Penwortham Bridge.

During the three-week trial Paul Reid, prosecuting, alleged Greenwood murdered Janet, 20, a first year law student at the Central Lancashire University and a part-time police clerk, as she walked home to Broad Oak Green, Penwortham, after an evening out.

A post-mortem examination revealed she had been dumped in the river while unconscious and died later from drowning.

Greenwood was interviewed on five occasions after his arrest and made detailed and repeated admissions that he was responsible.

Mr Reid said Greenwood, who lived at The Maltings, Penwortham, at the time of the death, had found it unbearable to live with his guilt and eventually had to confess.

Mr Reid said Greenwood told police details about the killing that could not have been gleaned from newspaper reports and BBC TV's Crimewatch re-enactment, as Greenwood claimed.

When his home was searched no press cuttings or video recordings were found.

Greenwood, of Sephton Street, Lostock Hall, Preston, denies murder.

The court has heard that he had been suffering from depression since the age of 18 and his confession, a 'confabulation' was a product of depression.

Greenwood claims that he had had a black out on the night of the killing and convinced himself he was the killer.

He had 'images' in his mind which he used to fill in gaps in the reports and wrongly believed he was to blame and deserved punishment when he confessed.