THE jury has gone out in the trial of Mohammed Zaman who denies manslaughter by gross negligence over the death of a peanut allergy sufferer who ate contaminated food at his restaurant.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC completed his summing up at 11.30am.

Mr Zaman, 53, from Huntington, near York, is charged with the manslaughter of Paul Wilson in January 2014, after he bought a takeaway from the Indian Garden restaurant in Easingwold - which he had specified to be nut free.

Mr Justice Bourne-Arton QC said: "It is the prosecution's case that the starting point was the change of product from almonds to mixed nuts.

"They say he must have known about the change of product, at least after the incident regarding Ruby Scott, who suffered an allergic reaction to peanuts in her meal just weeks before the death of Paul Wilson.

"They say he was indifferent and that his management system was clearly not working, that staff carried on preparing food with nuts and he was negligent."

He added: "The defence say he was an experienced restaurateur, and had never had problems before January 2014.

"His staff should have followed basic verbal orders from him to stop using the nuts, and when Zaman did know about the change of nuts he dealt with it by telling the supplier to remove them immediately.

"He took all reasonable steps and acted in due diligence."