Vincent Tabak, the man accused of killing Joanna Yeates, is due to appear in court today charged with the 25-year-old landscape architect’s murder.

The 32-year-old Dutchman, who speaks three languages, was arrested on Thursday. He is due before Bristol magistrates.

Specialist search teams have been examining the flat Tabak shares with his girlfriend, Tanja Morson, who is an analyst for Dyson, in Malmesbury, Wiltshire.

The family of Vincent Tabak told the Daily Mail at the weekend their relative was innocent.

Speaking from his home in the village of Doornenburg, 60 miles east of Amsterdam, brother Marcel said: ‘He’s a lovely man and I absolutely think they have got the wrong person.’

Tabak’s widowed mother, Sonja, who is in her seventies, was said to be ‘shattered’ by the news. 

Tabak’s ex-sister-in-law Paulie, who also lives in Doornenburg and is still very close to the family, said: ‘He is definitely innocent. This is totally out of the blue. I cannot imagine that he could ever have done anything like this. He is a calm, intelligent boy.’

Tabak’s father died a few years ago as his son was completing his PhD.