THE jury in the trial of a man accused of killing two promising teenage jockeys by setting fire to a North Yorkshire block of flats has been sent home this afternoon after failing to reach a verdict.

Peter William Brown, 37, faces two charges of murder, two charges of manslaughter and one accusation of arson with intent to endanger life following the blaze which killed Jamie Kyne, 18, from County Galway in the Republic of Ireland, and 19-year-old Jan Wilson, from Forfar, Scotland, at Buckrose Court in Norton, near Malton, last September.

After hearing three weeks of evidence at Leeds Crown Court, the jury was sent out at lunchtime today following final instructions and guidance and a summing-up of the case, including transcripts of police interviews with Brown following his arrest, by the judge, Mrs Justice Nicola Davies.

But they were sent home just after 4.15pm today following more than three hours of deliberations and will now continue to consider their verdict on the five charges against Brown tomorrow morning.

The two jockeys, who had both been tipped for racing greatness, died when they were trapped in the flats when the inferno ripped through the building in the early hours of September 5 last year.

The prosecution has claimed Brown, of School Croft, Brotherton, near Selby, started the fire, which forced some of the occupants of the complex to jump from windows and clamber down drainpipes to safety, as an act of revenge after he was refused entry to a party in the building and that he allegedly "hated" Jamie Kyne and one of the tragic jockeys' friends.

But his defence team has said "little or nothing in the way of good,old-fashioned evidence" has been produced against Brown, who formerly lived in a block next to the flats where the fire started and has described himself as being the building's former "manager". He denies all the charges he faces.