The boyfriend of student Sabita Thanwani will provisionally go on trial for her murder next spring, a court has heard.

Maher Maaroufe, 23, is accused of killing the 19-year-old at her university accommodation in central London early on March 19.

A neighbour heard screams coming from Ms Thanwani’s room and alerted emergency services.

Her attacker tried to get into another room before leaving the building in Sebastian Street, Clerkenwell, it is claimed.

Police found Ms Thanwani with a serious neck injury lying under blankets and a duvet on the floor.

She was pronounced dead at the scene at 6am.

A post-mortem examination gave Ms Thanwani’s cause of death as sharp force trauma to the neck.

Maaroufe was later found by police asleep under a tarpaulin in a garden shed.

He allegedly head-butted a police officer while being arrested.

On Friday, Maaroufe appeared at the Old Bailey for a hearing before Judge Mark Lucraft KC by video link from Belmarsh prison.

He was not asked to enter pleas to charges of Ms Thanwani’s murder and assaulting an emergency worker.Judge Lucraft set a provisional trial from May 2 next year.

He told the court: “Custody time limits expire later this month on September 20.

“We will obviously not be ready for trial then but the earliest date with a realistic time estimate of two to three weeks is May 2.”

Alex Rose, defending, said the pandemic is no longer a cause of the court’s backlog of cases, saying “underfunding and systemic disrepair” is instead.

The judge said there was a “good and sufficient cause” to extended custody time limits.

He said an earlier date for the trial could become available before May and he will review the situation at the next hearing on November 25.

The defendant, of no fixed address, was assisted by an Arabic interpreter and was remanded back into custody.