THE jury trying a man accused for a second time of murdering a Hampshire grandmother has this morning retired to consider its verdict.

The nine men and three women were instructed by the judge to reach their decision on whether Matthew Hamlen is guilty or innocent based purely on the evidence they have heard in court.

It follows seven weeks of evidence in the retrial of Hamlen, 37, who denies murdering 76-year-old Georgina Edmonds at her Brambridge home in January 2008.

Hamlen was acquitted in January 2012 having stood trial for the murder in which Mrs Edmonds was bludgeoned to death with a rolling pin and stabbed multiple times.

He was charged again with murder under double jeopardy rules after the Court of Appeal ruled his acquittal could be quashed.