A cleaner has appeared at the Old Bailey accused of murdering a missing woman and disposing of her body in a bin.

The disappearance of Maureen Gitau was reported by her family on Saturday December 10, after she was last seen five days earlier leaving her home in Evelyn Street in Deptford. 

It is alleged that, on the evening of Monday December 5, the 24-year-old entered a property in Deptford, in the London Borough of Lewisham, with Mark Moodie but did not leave the building alive.

The prosecution claim she was murdered by the 54-year-old at the property and her body placed in a bin which was collected on Thursday December 8.

Moodie was charged with murder even though Ms Gitau has not been found and police inquiries are continuing.

On Thursday, Moodie appeared at the Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing by video-link from Thameside Prison.

He spoke only to confirm his identity before Judge Mark Dennis KC set a timetable for the case.

The judge said a plea hearing would take place on March 23 and a trial at the Old Bailey from November 27.

Moodie, of Nightingale Place in Woolwich, south-east London, was remanded into custody.