Disregard sympathy for family - judge

The eight men and four women retired just after 2pm yesterday after Judge John Griffith Williams QC, the Record-er of Cardiff, finished summing up.

They were expected to return at 10am today to continue their deliberations.

Before being released, Judge Griffith Williams told the jury: "There will be a temptation, I suspect, if you leave the court building in a group to talk about things - resist it all costs."

In the afternoon session, Judge Griffith Williams highlighted Baldwin's criminal record for five separate dishonesty offences between 1980 and 1991 but added that the jury may find his conduct of last year more relevant when considering their verdict.

He then summed up the case for the prosecution and defence before the jury were allowed to begin its deliberations. Before they retired, the judge told them they should not feel under any pressure and take as long as they need to reach a verdict.

He said earlier in the day, Jenna Brookfield's life had been so "full of promise" until it was suddenly cut short last September.

Judge Griffith Williams said although they would have sympathy for Jenna's family, they must disregard it and reach an objective verdict.

Michael Baldwin, 36, formerly of Limekiln Road, Pontnewynydd, denies murdering his stepdaughter between September 3 and 11 last year. He has admitted burying her body after he panicked when she, he alleges, accidentally fell down the stairs.

The judge said: "You will bear in mind one person from which you cannot hear is Jenna, so you should be alerted to the risk of one-sided or incomplete sides of this case. You don't have to believe everything in this case or resolve every fact."

The judge added that the jury was well-placed with their "collective experience", to decide where the truth lies.

He said: "You have heard the evidence... you have seen the witnesses." The jury was told it was the prosecution's responsibility to prove Baldwin's guilt, it was not the defendant's responsibility to prove his innocence.

The judge said: "If you are not sure, you will acquit." Baldwin's defence was Jenna died on September 10, 2002, at the family home in Jasmine Cottage, Ffrwd Road, Abersychan.

The former poultry factory worker said she was taunting him by following him up the stairs and poking him in the back.

After she struck him in the neck, he swung around to fend her off, but she accidentally toppled down the stairs and died. Baldwin claimed he was "acting instinctively in self-defence", the judge reminded jurors.

But the prosecution claimed Jenna died on September 5. Verdict options available to the jury are to find Baldwin: * Guilty of murder * Not guilty of murder * Not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter on the basis of provocation * Not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter as a result of self-defence.

The judge told the jury they must consider whether the defendant "honestly believed" it was necessary to defend himself from attack.

To warrant self-defence, Baldwin had to have acted "instinctively" and to have used reasonable force to protect himself from Jenna.

The judge said: "Did the defendant at the time of the killing intend to kill or cause really serious harm?"

For Baldwin to claim he was provoked, causing him to lash out, he must have suffered a "sudden and temporary loss of his self-control" not just a simple loss of temper.

The law states Baldwin must have no longer been a "master of his actions", the judge said.

He added: "The law requires that you should be satisfied that his loss of self-control was sufficient excuse to reduce the gravity of the offence from murder to manslaughter."

Evidence highlighted by the judge was that of Desiree Baldwin, the defendant, reporter Anna Humphries and Stephen Bonar, a psychiatric nurse.

Baldwin allegedly said to Miss Humphries, that Jenna "really used to wind him up".

He also allegedly confessed to striking Jenna to Mr Bonar while on remand at Parc Prison, near Bridgend, telling him: "I should have walked away."