A JURY is expected to be sent out today to consider its verdict into the trial of a Slaithwaite man accused of murdering a Polish student.

Daniel Sykes is alleged to have murdered Tobiasz Minski by drowning him after a night out on November 9 last year.

The former soldier has admitted he had a scuffle with the 23-year-old Huddersfield University student.

He also admits that he buried the body of Mr Minski in a shallow grave.

But at Leeds Crown Court Sykes denies murdering the fine arts student.

The jury of three women and nine men will consider the case today.

Yesterday, Daniel Sykes, 25, of Royd Street, told the court that Mr Minski assaulted him and he retaliated in self-defence.

He admitted he should have reported it to the police, but instead he wrapped the corpse of Mr Minski in plastic and buried it in a shallow grave in Slaithwaite.

Sykes, a former Colne Valley High School pupil, said: “I was really scared, not because of murder because it wasn’t that, but because of the body.”

Simon Myerson QC, cross examining, asked Sykes: “You treated the body with quite an appalling disrespect didn’t you?”

Sykes said: “It is not the way a corpse should be handled.”

Earlier in the trial Sykes said he felt guilty about the death of the Polish student, but he denied murdering him.

He says the student must have drowned in the canal after the fight.

In his closing speech to the jury, Simon Myerson, prosecuting, said: “How he treated the body ... gives you an insight into the sort of person he is capable of being.

“In this case I am not in a position to tell you what happened; there are only two people who can tell you what happened and one is dead and the other is a liar.

“He thought he was clever enough to get away with this so he didn’t volunteer any information that the police didn’t already know.

“But he laid the tracks of what he knew they would find out; that Mr Minski drowned.

“How did he know that? Because, we suggest to you, he knew that because he was responsible for it.”

He asked the jury to reach a verdict of guilty of murder.

David Hatton QC, defending, said to the jury: “To conceal the body of Tobiasz Minski, as David Sykes undoubtedly did, was without doubt an unspeakable act and an outrageous violation.

“It was disrespectful, it was insensitive and it was cowardly.

“But the disrespect of the body and the lies do not, by a long way, prove murder.

“To find a verdict of guilty of murder, you need to be sure of what happened on that towpath.

“It’s guesswork and speculation which plays no part in reaching a verdict.”