Juror discharged from Barry Bennell trial

A juror has been discharged in the trial of former football coach Barry Bennell.

Liverpool Crown Court was told on Wednesday the female juror was being discharged.

The case will continue with a jury of five men and six women.

Recorder of Liverpool Judge Clement Goldstone QC said: "For the record, the absent juror will be discharged from further participation in this case."

The judge began his summing up of the case on Tuesday after four weeks of evidence.

He told the jury: "It is your task to consider and evaluate those arguments and the evidence coolly and dispassionately and, as both counsel have emphasised, without emotion, be it sympathy on the one hand or hostility on the other."

Bennell denies 48 offences of child sexual abuse, relating to 11 complainants and alleged to have happened between 1979 and 1990, but the jury has been directed to return not guilty verdicts in respect of three counts.