A woman has told a court she saw the man accused of murdering teenager Danielle Jones talking to schoolgirls the week before she disappeared.

Jean Frost told Chelmsford Crown Court she saw Stuart Campbell, Danielle's uncle, on two occasions in June 2001 in East Tilbury in Essex, where the 15-year-old lived.

Mr Campbell, 44, of Grays in Essex, denies kidnapping and murdering his niece.

The prosecution claims he was "fixated" on her and obsessed with schoolgirls.

Blue van

Mrs Frost, who lived opposite the Jones family, said she had first met Mr Campbell when she was a teenager, and had not seen him for up to 15 years.

On 11 June 2001, she saw him standing on a pavement "waving to a group of schoolgirls on the other side of the road".

She said the girls, who had just got off the school bus and were dressed in their uniforms, waved back.

Mrs Frost said she also saw Mr Campbell standing near a blue Ford Transit van "having a joke" with two schoolgirls on 14 June.

Identity parade

A 13-year-old witness, who asked for screens to be placed in front of Mr Campbell in the dock, told the court he had seen Danielle talking to a man in a blue van in East Tilbury on 15 June.

The court heard the boy, a friend of Danielle's brother, did not pick out Mr Campbell in an identity parade two months later.

The boy told the court all those in the line-up had baseball caps on, so he had not been able to see their hair.

Danielle went missing on 18 June while walking to the bus stop near her home.

Her body has never been found.

The trial continues.