THE selection process to chose jurors who will try three men accused of murdering a millionaire and four members of his family began at the Old Bailey on Wednesday.

A panel of 12 will be chosen from 100 who filed into number two court to be told the trial could last beyond the Easter break.

Those jurors who can sit on a trial lasting more than three months are expected to hear the prosecution case open on Monday November 8.

Kenneth Regan, 54, accountant William Horncy, 51, and Peter Rees, 38, are jointly accused of the five killings.

The bodies of 46-year-old businessman Amarjit Chohan, of Sutton Road, Hounslow, Middlesex, and his wife Nancy, 25, were washed up off the Dorset coast last year.

Their two sons, three month-old Ravinder and 18-month-old Devinder, and Mr Chohan's mother Charanjit Kaur, 51, are still missing.

Mr Chohan, from Hounslow, west London, whose business, CIBA Freight, had an annual turnover of £4.5 million, was last seen on February 16 last year in Salisbury.

His body was discovered by a canoeist near Bournemouth Pier on 22 April. His wife's body was later found in Poole Bay.

Jobless Horncy, of Adeline Road, Boscombe, Rees, of Kings Close, Rowlands Castle, Portsmouth, and Regan, of Forge Close, Wilton near Salisbury, all deny five charges of murder between February 14 and April 23 last year.

They further deny the false imprisonment of Mr Chohan between February 12 and April 28 last year.

First published: November 4