The jury in the case of Colin Ash-Smith, who is on trial for the alleged murder of schoolgirl Claire Tiltman in Greenhithe, has retired to consider its verdict.

The seven men and five women were sent out today by Mr Justice Sweeney at Inner London Crown Court to decide whether Ash-Smith, 46, stabbed the 16-year-old to death in an alleyway off London Road in Greenhithe on January 18 1993.

Claire had set out at around 6.10pm to walk less than a mile from her home in Woodward Terrace, Stone, to her friend Victoria Swift's in Riverview Road.

The pair had planned to discuss Claire's college choices but she never made it there.

The prosecution alleges the former milkman, who was 24 at the time and living with his parents in Milton Street, Swanscombe, subjected her to a "frenzied and remorseless" attack, in which she was stabbed nine times before staggering to the foot of the alleyway by London Road, collapsing, and dying on her back on the pavement before horrified onlookers.

The court heard Ash-Smith confessed in 1996 to stabbing two women, one in December 1988 and another in October 1995.

In the first attack he attempted to murder his victim near a quarry in Swanscombe by strangling her and stabbing her in the back, while he also attempted to rape her.

In the second, he stabbed local woman Charlotte Barnard 360 metres from where Claire was attacked, just inside an unlit alleyway connecting London Road with Riverview Road.

Ash-Smith was charged with Claire's murder in February this year after a police cold case review.

He denies murder.