Mr Junior Craig (26), accused of murdering a schoolgirl, Sonia Forsythe (13), claimed yesterday that he helped search for her the night she disappeared.
The remains of the 13-yearold were discovered wrapped in a carpet in a coal-bunker at Mr Craig's Sydney Street West home in April 1996, five years after she had vanished.
Giving evidence on his own behalf, Mr Craig admitted to Belfast Crown Court that he had been with the teenager on June 3Oth, 1991, the night she went missing, but denied that he had taken her to his flat and killed her.
Mr Craig told Mr Eugene Grant QC, defending, that after falling asleep watching television he was woken in the early hours by his mother and Sonia's mother, looking for the girl. Mr Craig said he then went to his mother's and asked Tracey, his sister, to help him search for Sonia.
He claimed they looked around the Crumlin Road and Oldpark area of north Belfast for "an hour or so" before returning to his mother's where he spent the night on the sofa.
The case continues.