Murder charge

FOUR teenagers - three girls and a boy - were last night charged with the murder of 18-year-old Angela Jane Pearce, whose body was found in a shallow grave on waste ground. A man was also charged with the murder of Angela, whose body was found buried on waste ground in the centre of Leeds last Saturday, police said.

Her parents had started a poster campaign to help find her after she went missing from her home in East End Park in the city on 9 April. Police are still awaiting a cause of death and the result of forensic tests.

At a news conference earlier this week police said it was likely the teenager, who was schizophrenic, could have been beaten for 24 hours before her death. She was last seen the day before by her boyfriend as she made her way to the city centre.

West Yorkshire Police said last night that they had charged the girls - aged 16, 17 and 19 - together with a 17-year-old boy and a 21-year- old man. They will appear before magistrates in Leeds today.