A man charged with battering and then burning Bristol teenager Kylee Dibble may have been seen leaving her block of flats on the morning she was found dead, a court heard.

Donna Pearce told Bristol Crown Court she knew Nicky Robinson by his nickname "Nixon" for some ten years and always found him to be very polite and pleasant.

She said she gave police a statement about how she had seen smoke coming from Kylee's flat on the fourth floor of Corbett House in Barton Hill in 2005.

She said that later she realised she might have seen Robinson emerge from the tower block that morning and put a bag into a bin.

Robinson, 24, who was living at the flats with his cousin at the time, denies murder.

It is claimed he visited 18-year-old Kylee early on a Monday morning and after an argument – possibly over getting money for drugs – battered her over the head in her lounge and set fire to her body to cover his tracks.

Miss Pearce described how she passed by Corbett House when walking her children to school.

She said: "I noticed smoke coming out of the window.

"I phoned the fire brigade and after I phoned them I moved closer to Corbett House.

"I saw the rear entry doors to the building and while I was waiting for the fire brigade to come I saw Nixon come down the back stairwell and put some rubbish in a bin by the door."

Miss Pearce said she and Robinson acknowledged each other.

"He nodded at me and I nodded at him," she said. "I looked up at the window. I looked back down and he wasn't there. He could have gone back inside, I don't know."

When cross-examined Miss Pearce said she might be "jumbled up" in what she saw.

She remembered, though, that Robinson appeared to be calm and not panicked or furtive.

Leanne Revill, Robinson's cousin, told the court she allowed him to stay with her and her son at her second floor flat at Corbett House in 2005.

She told the court she knew Robinson had a crack cocaine habit, he would come and go from the flat and sometimes her personal possessions would go missing.

Miss Revill recalled that on the morning in question she got up and took her child to school.

She said she didn't remember seeing Robinson in the flat before she left but when she returned, having seen fire engines outside, she went back to her flat and remembered Robinson was there and she had a brief conversation with him.

She confirmed he then went out and she may have seen him back at the flat later that day.

A statement from Leanne Dennett confirmed she'd seen Kylee on a bus, returning to Barton Hill, on the evening before she died.

Detective Sergeant William Baltyn told the court he'd analysed CCTV footage grabbed from a camera facing Corbett House.

The jury was show stills in which Kylee's lounge and kitchen lights were seen to go on and off on Sunday night before a chink of light briefly appeared in her lounge at 6.10am on the Monday.

DS Baltyn also told the court that Kylee's lounge window opened at 8.28am and at 8.32am the first signs of smoke could be seen leaving it.

He said he'd examined an identical window and confirmed that Kylee's window had been opened by someone. The case continues.