How the Heathrow heist went to a jury-less trial

The three previous trials of the Heathrow robbery all collapsed, and the cost of the investigation and legal cases stands at more than £25m. Until today's verdict the only person to have been convicted of the robbery was the inside man, Darren Brockwell, who pleaded guilty and gave police information about the defendants. February 2005: The first trial involving six other defendants and John Twomey, the so-called "ringleader". Twomey, on remand at Belmarsh Prison, suffered a heart attack and was severed from the indictment. The jury failed to reach verdicts on his six co-defendants. February 2007: In the second trial, the jury was reduced to nine after three members of the panel were "compromised" and with nine jurors left they were unable to reach a decision on the defendants, Twomey, Peter Blake and Barry Hibberd. June 2008: The third attempt to try the men – who now included Glenn Cameron – was stopped after allegations of jury tampering were presented to the judge by Metropolitan police officers. Mr Justice Calvert-Smith at the high court decided a fourth trial could go ahead with the jury protected by a package that would cost £1.5m and involve 32 police officers. The crown appealed this decision and last year the court of appeal finding "real and present danger" of jury tampering ruled the only way forward was to hold the trial without one.