The trial of a man accused of killing a woman by stabbing her 31 times took a dramatic twist on Wednesday when it was forced to restart.

The Old Bailey's central criminal court heard on Monday from prosecutor Peter Clarke that Kate Beagley, 32, was killed in Petersham Meadow, Richmond, by Karl Taylor, a 27-year-old football coach from Covent Garden, on May 30 last year.

However the judge said the case would have to restart after it emerged one of the jurors was unable to continue sitting for the remainder of the trial.

The court had heard how Mr Taylor met Kate for a date in Chiswick High Road and the pair drove to Richmond where they had a drink in the Roebuck pub on Richmond Hill.

According to the prosecution he killed her close to the River Thames, before putting her body in the boot of her Volkswagen Golf and driving it to woods in South Oxhey, Hertfordshire. He is then said to have dumped the body and disposed of the murder weapon while driving back down the M1. Mr Taylor denies murder.

The court also heard a woman, Susan Evans, was sitting on a bench in Petersham Meadow when she spotted the pair. But the next time either of them could be accounted for was when Kate's car was picked up by a police check on Chiswick Bridge just before midnight. The trial continues.