Two men on trial for the murder of a solicitor had nothing to do with her death, a court has heard.

John Cort (54) and Brian Farrell (37) have told a jury they were not present when Cort's business partner, Vina Patel, was killed on January 15, 2009, and that they were not responsible for her death.

Mrs Patel's body was found by her husband and daughter at the office she shared with Cort in Blackbird Road, Leicester.

Yesterday, at Nottingham Crown Court, High Court Judge Mrs Justice Dobbs summed up the evidence in the case and detailed the defence's rebuttal of the allegations made against the defendants.

Cort, of Rutland Street, Leicester, and Farrell, of Queensborough Terrace, west London, deny murdering Mrs Patel.

Mrs Justice Dobbs said Cort and Farrell's respective barristers, Frances Oldham QC and Charles Miskin QC, had said that neither man was responsible for Mrs Patel's death.

Mrs Oldham has told the jury that Cort had not planned Mrs Patel's death to claim an insurance pay-out, as the prosecution alleges.

She said a meeting with estate agent Lyndon Oldham, which the prosecution claimed was set up to provide an alibi, was legitimate.

An alleged staged burglary at Cort's office, which the prosecution says was carried out by Cort himself to cover up theft from his company's clients, is also denied.

Mr Miskin has told the jury that the presence of Farrell's DNA on Mrs Patel's body, and evidence that his phone had been used in the area of her office, were not proof he had been in direct contact with her.

He also stated that despite mobile phone evidence which showed Farrell had been in the area of Cort's and Co, it was not possible to confirm he had been inside the offices.

Both men claim statements taken from them after their arrest were made under duress and any changes in their accounts of the day of Mrs Patel's death, and other pertinent dates, were a result of the distress they were experiencing.

The prosecution alleges the two men plotted to kill Mrs Patel so Cort could claim £1.5m to cover hundreds of thousands of pounds of debt and funds plundered from his company.

The jury in the trial was due to retire to consider its verdict today.