A man accused of murdering the mother of his child in their Kingston home will face a retrial.

Muhammad Asad Niazi, 29, denies murdering his partner Charito “Che” Cruz, 37, in their Kingston bedsit on September 29 last year.

The prosecution had been due to close their case at the Old Bailey court yesterday morning after five days of witnesses but a retrial will now take place.

Abigail Pickering, Ms Cruz’s sister-in-law, who has travelled to the Old Bailey from Buckinghamshire, said: “I’m devastated. The family is all waiting for answers.

“To go through it again with a retrial, I’m going to go through all the emotions.”

Mrs Pickering said Ms Cruz’s ashes were reunited with her parents in the Philippines in April - six months after she died.

Generous friends and churchgoers raised nearly £3,000 to pay for the trip after being moved by her death.

Mrs Pickering said: “I took the urn straight to the birthplace of Charito in Paranque.

“We had a funeral there for two days and she was taken to her home place and another funeral and she was buried on May 2.

“It is a tradition. There was crying. [Her parents] said ‘You left alive and came back as ashes.'

It was a really hard thing.”

She said Roberto, Ms Cruz’s brother and his family from Australia also took part in the funerals.

They had not been able to visit the cremation service in Kingston but watched on Skype over a mobile phone camera.

Mrs Pickering said: “It has been very hard not to see her. Normally on the burial we open the coffin and have a last kiss or goodbye or touch.”

Mr Niazi and Ms Cruz's two year-old-daughter was being looked after.

She said: “She is fine and doing well.”

The jury were discharged yesterday afternoon and a date for the trial set in December.