A jury has retired to consider its verdicts in the case of a yard worker accused of killing two young escorts six months apart.

Mark Brown denies the murders of Alexandra Morgan, 34, from Sissinghurst in November 2021 and Leah Ware, 33, from Hastings in May of that year.

A jury of 10 men and two women has been listening to evidence in the case since October 18 at Hove Crown Court.

Mr Justice Judge Nicholas Hilliard KC concluded his summing up of the evidence earlier today, before the jury was sent out to begin its deliberations shortly before 10.30am.

The court heard Ms Morgan, a mum-of-two, was last seen at a petrol station in Cranbrook on Remembrance Day last year.

She had arranged to meet Brown, who told jurors he had arranged web cam work for her after meeting her on an escorts website, at his hobby yard at Little Bridge Farm, East Sussex.

Ms Morgan's charred remains were later found at a building site in Sevenoaks where Brown worked after she failed to return home and her parents raised the alarm.

While giving evidence during the trial, Brown, 41, told jurors he "panicked" and burnt her in an oil drum after she slipped and hit her head in his workshop but denies her killing.

Prosecutors allege it is the same method used just six months prior to dispose of missing Ms Ware who Brown also met online on the Adultwork website.

The court heard during the trial that Brown’s relationship with Ms Ware, with whom he had an “on-off” relationship from 2018 until May 2021, had soured – although the pair hooked up again during a security gig at the Mecca Bingo in Ashford in April last year.

In the months following her last public sighting in May last year, Brown continued to collect Ms Ware’s medication for depression and anxiety from a Lloyds pharmacy near his home.

A stash of her prescriptions were later located in the footwell of his van and records show he also made withdrawals from her bank, the court heard.

Ms Ware has been missing since May 2021 but despite extensive police inquiries home and abroad she has never been found. Brown says she is still alive and denies her killing.

Prosecuting counsel Duncan Atkinson KC asked jurors during his closing address to apply “common sense” and their “knowledge of human nature” when considering evidence.

This included “medical, financial and phone [cell site]” evidence presented to the court and the abrupt end of contact with family and friends.

Defence counsel for Brown, Ian Henderson KC warned jurors of the “dangers" of "confirmation bias” when considering the evidence.

He invited them to approach each bit of evidence “openly and fairly” and to dismiss “soundbites and theories”.

Brown, of Squirrel Close in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, denies the murder of both Alexandra Morgan and Leah Ware.