Vincent Tabak: Pure Chance I Killed Joanna

Vincent Tabak claims it was "pure chance" he killed Joanna Yeates after she invited him into her flat for a drink and he "completely misread the situation".

Outlining the case for the defence, William Clegg QC, said Miss Yeates was "bored and lonely" on December 17 and came home to her Clifton flat to bake mince pies.

When her neighbour Tabak set off for Asda, passing her kitchen window, she "beckoned for him to come in".

The landscape architect offered him a drink, which he declined and after talking for around 10 minutes Tabak tried to kiss her, putting "one hand on her back to draw her closer".

Mr Clegg told Bristol Crown Court he "completely misread the situation" and that "she screamed and he panicked".

The jury heard that Tabak, who denies murder but admits manslaughter, put a hand over her mouth to stifle her "piercing scream" and then, apologising, he took his hand away.

As she started to scream again he put one hand back over mouth and the other around her throat and in "less than a minute" Miss Yeates "went limp" and was dead.

Mr Clegg said Tabak had committed a "dreadful crime" and that if Miss Yeates had stayed at the pub for another drink she would still be alive.

He said his client must "pay the price for what he had done" but the jury was asked to remember that it was not something he had "planned or wanted".

The court was then painted a picture of Tabak's actions after Miss Yeates' death - and heard he had turned off her oven, removed the pizza she had bought and took her body to his flat before placing it in a bicycle bag and putting her in his boot.

After a brief trip to Asda he drove to Longwood Lane where an attempt was made to put her over the wall.

But Mr Tabak failed because Miss Yeates' dead body was "too heavy".

Miss Yeates' snow-covered corpse was found on the lane by a couple on December 25.

Closing his speech Mr Clegg implored the jury to remember Tabak was not being tried for what he did after Joanna Yeates' death, even though it was "frankly disgusting".

Instead he urged them to consider only "the act that caused her death" which, he said, was not "planned or pre-meditated" in any way.

Tabak is due to give evidence on Thursday.

Earlier the prosecution closed their case after hearing evidence from two further witnesses.

The jury heard how Tabak used the internet to follow the police search and press coverage in the days after he killed Joanna Yeates.

The Dutch engineer used computers at home and at work, as well his mobile phone, to look up "maximum sentence manslaughter, UK", "forensics, Jo Bristol".

Tabak watched a time-lapse video of a body decomposing.

He also looked up the definitions of "sexual conduct" and "sexual assault" and did Wikipedia searches on "murder" and "manslaughter" in UK law.

On December 19 - before police knew Miss Yeates was missing - Tabak looked at Google maps of Longwood Lane, Failand, where he dumped her body on a snow-covered verge, the court heard.

The court was also told that six days after killing her, Tabak researched the percentage of grey cars and how many Renault Megane's there are in the UK - the colour and model of his own vehicle.

Expert internet analyst, Lyndsey Farmery, confirmed he had spent time reading articles about high profile murder cases - including Anni Dewani, Barry Rubery and Melanie Hall.

In Google searches, Tabak looked up pages about the pizza Miss Yeates bought and also checked rubbish collections, the jury was told.

Nigel Lickley, QC for the prosecution, said that at some points Tabak was doing "many hits on various websites" and that this was "hourly, perhaps constant viewing".