Jury sent home in trial of family members charged with Leeds teenager's manslaughter

The Leeds Crown Court jury in the Jordan Burling manslaughter trial retired to consider verdicts this afternoon (Friday July 6) after a month-long trial.

The jury had been out for two hours when they were sent home for the weekend and asked to return on Monday morning to continue deliberating.

The jury has been told teenager Jordan was “skin and bone” and weighed less than six stones when paramedics found him lying on a filthy inflatable mattress, covered in pressure sores in the living room at the house in Farnley in June 2016.

His mother Dawn Cranston, 45; grandmother Denise Cranston, 70; and sister Abigail Burling, 25, are on trial accused of manslaughter and an alternative charge causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult.

They deny all the charges.

Dawn and Densie Cranston are of Butterbowl Garth, Farnley and Abigal Burling is of Cow Close, Leeds.

Prosecutor Nicholas Lumley QC, said Mr Burling died as a result of malnutrition, immobility and infection-riddled sores after being “allowed to decay” for several weeks before his death.

The Leeds Crown Court jury was told his body was likened to those of prisoners held in Second World War extermination camps.

The jury also heard how a police search of the house after Mr Burling’s death uncovered the remains of Dawn Cranston’s full-term newborn baby, which had been stuffed into a rucksack.

The jury was told Dawn Cranston has admitted endeavouring to conceal the birth of a child.

Proceeding