The man accused of murdering Claire Tiltman stabbed her from behind in an unlit alleyway and called the police the next day with a false tip-off, a court heard today (November 17).

Colin Ash-Smith, 46, is charged with stabbing the 16-year-old Dartford schoolgirl to death on the evening of January 18, 1993 in an alleyway off London Road, Greenhithe.

The attack was carried out near a zebra crossing.

The court heard how Ash-Smith phoned the police the morning after Claire was killed (January 19, 1993).

Christopher Cole, who was a PC at the time with Kent Police, spoke to him on the phone and took a message.

In a witness statement read to the court, Mr Cole said: "He said was driving past London Road (on the day of the killing) at about 6.30pm towards Greenhithe and he noticed a man by the crossing.

"He only just glanced at him but he noticed the man had dark, curly hair."

The description was similar to those of Claire given by other witnesses, who also mistook her for a boy.

Stefan Dubois told the court how he had become friends with Ash-Smith when the two were at Wakefield Prison together in 2001.

Mr Dubois said: "The story that went round the prison was he had stabbed one of his previous victims several times and missed every vital organ so we joked that we wouldn't have him on the prison darts team.

"We played Dungeons and Dragons together and other adventure games.

"Colin mentioned something about driving to a zebra crossing when making an attack on someone during one of these games."

The mention of the crossing was significant because neither of Ash-Smith’s two other admitted attacks on women, in December 1988 and October 1995, took place anywhere near one.

A pathologist described how Claire Tiltman had been stabbed at least nine times and died of her wounds, with the knife slashing her aorta and lung as well as slicing into her jaw and collarbone.

Home Office pathologist Dr Peter Jerreat told Inner London Crown Court: "Her injuries suggest she may have been attacked from behind. I would have expected to see more defence injuries on the hands or arms otherwise.

"Being stabbed in the back from the behind can feel like a blow (rather than a knife wound) so she may have turned around to see where the blow had come from."

Ash-Smith denies murder.

The trial continues.