A petty row then I left Sally Anne yards from home

Lewis Sproston, 22, described how their final moments together were consumed by a petty jealous row.

She begged him not to go but he dropped her yards from her front door and drove off looking at her in his rear view mirror. His last glimpse was of Miss Bowman just about to enter the drive leading to her front door in a quiet south Croydon road.

It was there that the 18-year-old was stabbed and her dead body desecrated in a frenzy of sexual gratification in September 2005.

Mark Dixie, 37, of no fixed address, has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Mr Sproston told the court his two-year relationship with aspiring model Sally Anne was marred by blazing rows and jealousies. "It was good but there were arguments, although we always made up," he told the court.

"The arguments were just silly things, every day silliness. I was jealous and she was more trusting than me."

On the night of the murder Mr Sproston was out with friends in Kingston and Sally Anne was with her sister Nicole and her friends at a bar in Croydon.

Sally Anne texted and then rang him for a lift home, inventing a bogus story that Nicole had been arrested for fighting. "I said it was a little bit out of order to want me to leave my friends and pick her up, but she was stranded and I didn't want to leave her on her own," he said. When Mr Sproston picked Sally Anne up at about 2.20am they began to argue. They reached Blenheim Crescent where Sally Anne lived and Mr Sproston parked, leaving the engine running and the lights on.

He continued: "It went into an argument. I thought she had been with boys that night and she thought I had been with girls - it was just jealousy. There may have been raised voices but not shouting. Nobody outside the car would have heard it. We then made up, hugging and kissing. But Sally Anne didn't want me to leave and we started to argue. In all it was for about one and a half to two hours from the time we arrived there.

"I leaned across her to open the passenger door. She and I got out of the passenger door. I went to get into the car again but she didn't want me to and she grabbed my T-shirt ripping my chain from my neck. After a couple of minutes I got back into the car and locked the doors. Sally Anne picked up her handbag and I saw her walking away through the rear view mirror. The last thing I saw of Sally Anne was her entering her front garden. She was looking at me for the first couple of seconds as she started to walk towards the garden."

Mr Sproston estimated he left Sally Anne between 4.10 and 4.30 am. It was around that time neighbours heard a woman's screams.

Dixie's barrister accused Mr Sproston of being the murderer. Anthony Glass QC said: "Did you leave her (Sally Anne) dead or dying?" Mr Sproston said: "Are you being serious?" Mr Glass went on: "I am being serious. Did you leave her dead or dying?"

Mr Sproston replied firmly: "No." The court has heard that Dixie claims that although he had sex with Miss Bowmanshe had already been murdered by somebody else. The case continues.