Jury split as lesbian murder trial enters second week THE jury considering the fate of alleged Lancaster murderess Maureen Booth still hasn't come to a verdict despite five hours of debate. Deputy High Court Judge David Clarke QC sent the jury at Liverpool Crown Court off to consider its verdict on 50-year-old Booth before noon yesterday. At 5pm he sent jurors away for the night after they failed to agree. Before considering its verdict on the woman accused of murdering her lesbian lover, 49-year-old Kathleen Wardle, the jury asked for an unloaded crossbow to be fired and re-cocked in front of them.

Liverpool Crown Court has heard that Miss Wardle suffered three skull fractures and wounds to her chin, neck and chest at their maisonette flat in Brindle Close, Scale Hall, on Valentine's Day last year.

Booth maintains her son, Michael Davis, was responsible and shot Miss Wardle with a crossbow. She claims to have heard a "twang" before seeing Miss Wardle with something sticking out of the top of her back.

Mr Mukhtar Hussain QC, prosecuting, claimed that this was yet another of numerous lies told by Booth, saying she abandoned her carefully planned alibi and blamed her son once she realised the strength of evidence against her.

He added that Booth had contradicted herself when saying she had initially tried to protect Michael Davis, only to write a fake anonymous letter to police within weeks of her arrest in the hope he would be caught.

There was ample time for her to dispose of the weapons, go to the nearby Asda and try to establish an alibi, said Mr Hussain.

Michael Davis' alleged motive - that he did not like Kath because she was gay - did not fit and Booth had never mentioned this before coming to court, he said.

Defence QC, Mr Anthony Morris, said it was an unusual if not extraordinary case, and Miss Wardle had been the victim of a "savage and brutal attack".

He argued that the prosecution had failed to provide any motive for the attack on Booth's part and had valiantly tried to persuade the jury it had nothing to do with Michael Davis.

But the killing had all the hallmarks of a planned attack and Davis, who clearly bore resentment towards his mother for the death of his brother and two sisters in a 1974 fire, may have been affected by drugs on the day, claimed Mr Morris.

Mr Davis has told the court he has never owned or used a crossbow and was in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, where he lives, on the night of the killing.

The case continues.

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