The jury in a trial of a man accused of murdering his lover and dumping her corpse into a suitcase has been sent home for the night without reaching a verdict.

Jurors were initially sent out to deliberate at 2.10pm, shortly after hearing Judge Stephen Kramer QC summed up the evidence in the trial of Laszlo Gyarmati, 29.

Mr Gyarmati has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denies murdering 25-year-old Alexandra Kovacs at her home in Lee Road, Mill Hill.

Mr Gyarmati said he did not mean to kill Miss Kovacs during an argument about plans to arrange sham marriages last July.

He said he put his hand over her mouth, then her throat and put a pillow over her face in an attempt to get her to “be silent”.

When he removed the pillow he realised she was dead. He put her body in a suitcase and left it in bushes in Dollis Valley Greenwalk.

The jury has been sent home for the night, and will return to the Central Criminal Court tomorrow morning at 10am.