The ten-week, £8 million trial of two Leeds United footballers over an alleged assault on an Asian student dramatically collapsed yesterday as the jury was considering its verdict.

The trial judge, Justice Poole, abandoned the case after the jury admitted seeing or discussing a Sunday Mirror article in which the father of the assaulted teenager was quoted as disputing the judge's guidance to the jury that the attack had not been racially motivated.

The judge has provoked a row with his criticism of the Macpherson report's broad and "subjective" definition of a racial crime.

The Sunday Mirror has been referred to the attorney general for possible prosecution for contempt of court. Colin Myler, the editor, faces a potential two years in prison.