A jury retired last night to consider its verdict in the trial of a football coach accused of murdering his model girlfriend.

Ricardo Morrison, 22, of Birmingham, is accused of stabbing to death part-time model and actress Amy Leigh Barnes at the house they shared in Bolton, Greater Manchester, on November 8 last year.

His mother, Melda Wilks, 50, an officer with West Midlands Police, denies assisting an offender by allowing her son to wash his clothes, destroying forensic evidence to cover up for him. Morrison and Wilks, of Rubery, plead not guilty.

Miss Barnes, 19, who had modelled for magazines and was an actress on Hollyoaks, made a desperate 999 call in the seconds after the attack saying she had been stabbed by “my boyfriend”.

She was found dying in a pool of blood by her father, Andrew Barnes.

The trial, in its third week, heard the young couple endured a stormy nine-month relationship. Morrison said he loved Miss Barnes and they were engaged. But she told friends she had been subjected to domestic violence, with repeated attacks from her boyfriend.

The jury was sent home for the night and will resume its deliberations this morning.