Three Australians deny serial murder

Two of the bodies were found buried in a garden

Three men in Australia have pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of murder, in what has become known as the "bodies-in-barrels" case.

Eight bodies were found in vats in the bank vault

The men are accused of a series of gruesome killings which took place between 1995 and 1999.

Eight bodies were found stuffed in acid-filled plastic barrels in a disused bank vault in Snowtown, 150km (90 miles) north of Adelaide.

Two other bodies were found buried in a garden in Adelaide.

John Justin Bunting, 34, Mark Ray Haydon, 42, and Robert Joe Wagner, 29, face life imprisonment if convicted.

Alleged motive

During a pre-trial hearing, prosecutors said the victims were all either friends or relatives of the accused and had been suffocated or strangled. Many were dismembered after death, they said.

The three accused had allegedly formed schemes to fraudulently collect the victims' welfare benefits after their deaths.

A fourth man, James Spyridon Vlassakis, 21, pleaded guilty in June to four of the 10 murders and was sentenced to life in prison.

South Australia state Supreme Court Justice Brian Martin has barred from publication any pictures, sketches or written descriptions of the three accused.

He did not immediately set a trial date.