Murder trial hears from last person to see Kelly alive

Vincent Martin Leach told Swansea Crown court how Kelly smiled at him as she walked past.

Only a minute or two later he saw the defendant, a 17-year-old youth, walking behind her in the same direction.

The prosecution claim the youth followed Miss Hyde and caught up with her on a bridal path leading from the end of Mill Terrace.

There, said Patrick Harrington QC, prosecuting, the youth beat her to death "in an explosion of anger and violence."

Mr Leach said early on September 27 - the day Kelly went missing - he had resumed painting the outside of his parents' home when he spotted Kelly walking her dog.

"I looked at her and she looked at me. We made eye contact. She smiled at me and I smiled back."

Mr Leach went on to say that on watching Kelly walk past he resumed painting the house. But within a minute or two he saw the youth standing on the opposite side of Mill Terrace wearing a grey top.

Mr Leach described how he last noticed him walking away in the same direction as Kelly.

The prosecution has claimed that the youth was wearing, at that stage, a grey Lonsdale hooded top, which was later found to have Kelly's blood on it.

But when he was seen on the bridal path at shortly after 11am he was wearing a yellow T-shirt.

It was possible, said Mr Harrington, that Kelly had been attacked twice and that between the attacks the youth had changed his clothing.

The jury has heard that the murder weapon was a 2.5 kilogram dumbell. Police who raided the youth's home found its "twin" as well as the lead - now blood soaked - used by Kelly to walk her pet whippet Scrappy.

The trial has also heard today from Dawn Gosling, who also lives in Mill Terrace. She described how she saw someone walking a dog past her house sometime after 9am on September 27.

She could not identify the person, or even say if it was a man or woman, but she was certain the dog was Scrappy.

The youth, who cannot be named because of his age, denies murder and the trial continues.