The United Kingdom Privy Council heard legal arguments yesterday in the Janice Allen case and has reserved its decision.

The Privy Council is to determine whether or not the Jamaican court was correct when it refused leave to go to the Judicial Review Court for an order to quash a jury's verdict.

The appellant, Millicent Forbes, the mother of Janice Allen (who was 13 at the time of her death), is being assisted by the human rights lobby group Jamaicans For Justice.

Allen was shot dead at her gate in Trench Town, west Kingston, in April 2000. A policeman was charged with the murder, but a jury was directed to return a formal verdict of not guilty because of false information. The court was told then that a policeman, who was a vital witness in the case, was abroad and was not returning.