Jury sent home in Vikki Thompson murder trial

Vikki Thompson died in 1995, six days after being found unconscious

The jury in the case of a man on trial for the second time over the murder of a woman has been sent home.

Mark Weston, 35, is accused of battering Vikki Thompson, 30, whose body was found in Ascott-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire, in 1995.

Mr Weston was cleared in 1996 but is on trial again following the discovery of new DNA evidence.

Mr Weston, appearing at Reading Crown Court, denies murder. The jury will resume its deliberations on Monday.

Thames Valley Police reopened the case in 2005, on the 10th anniversary of Mrs Thompson's death.

Prosecutors said small amounts of her blood, missed during the initial investigation, were discovered on a pair of Mr Weston's boots.

Brain injury

Mr Weston is alleged to have chased and killed Mrs Thompson because he realised she had caught him masturbating while watching her as she walked her dog.

He has denied murdering her or harming her in any way.

Mrs Thompson lived with her husband Jonathan and two young children in the small village.

Her husband first knew something was wrong when their collie dog, Daisy, returned home alone following the walk on the afternoon of 12 August 1995.

Mr Thompson went looking for her with his children and neighbours and a few hours later she was found by a local couple, still alive, and lying on rocks on a railway embankment.

She had suffered skull fractures and a brain injury and was taken to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford where she died six days later.