A schoolgirl who looked like teenager Danielle Jones was seen sobbing on the morning she vanished, a court has heard.

Kelly Humphries, 25, told how she saw the girl crying in the toilet of Grays Library, Essex.

Danielle, from East Tilbury, vanished on 18 June, 2001, after setting off for her school bus stop.

Danielle's uncle, Stuart Campbell a 44-year-old builder from Grays denies abducting and murdering the schoolgirl.

Danielle Jones went missing in June last year

Her body has never been found.

The prosecution allege Mr Campbell was obsessed with Danielle and had a fascination with teenage girls generally.

Ms Humphries, giving evidence at Chelmsford Crown Court, said she left home on 18 June, 2001, for a speech therapy appointment concerning her son at 1015 BST.

About half an hour later, she went to the library so that her son could go to the toilet.

She said: "I could hear somebody sobbing in one of the toilets.

'Puffy' eyes

"I was waiting for my son but he was taking a while.

"The girl came out of one of the toilets and walked towards me. She was upset."

Ms Humphries said that the girl's eyes had been red because she was crying and were also a "little bit puffy".

But she said the colour of skirt which Danielle would have worn in her school uniform was not the same colour as the dark-coloured garment which she had seen the girl wearing in the toilet.