Jury out in ‘gone into the kebabs’ murder trial

THE jury in the trial of a takeaway owner accused of killing a schoolgirl and joking she had “gone into the kebabs” retired yesterday to consider its verdict.

Iyad Albattikhi, 29, is accused of having sex with Charlene Downes, 14, before she was “chopped up” and disposed of.

No trace of Charlene’s body has been found.

The trial, in its 10th week at Preston Crown Court, has heard Albattikhi owned Funny Boyz fast food shop in Blackpool.

Charlene was one of a number of young girls said to have had sex with older men who worked in the town’s fast food shops.

Charlene, from Buchanan Street in Blackpool, was last seen in the early evening of Saturday, November 1, 2003. After kissing her mother goodbye she went off on her own — and disappeared, the jury has heard.

Police bugged the defendant’s flat. He is alleged to have talked about having sex with Charlene, killing her, and the body being eaten.

Albattikhi, a Jordanian immigrant, denies murder.

His business partner and landlord, Mohammed Rev-eshi, 50, originally from Iran, denies helping to dispose of the body.

Both men told the court they never knew Charlene.