VIDEO THE BOYFRIEND of Anneli Alderton has told a court of the last time he saw her.

THE BOYFRIEND of Anneli Alderton has told a court of the last time he saw her.

Sammy Jefford, a serving prisoner, was in a relationship with 24-year-old Anneli and living with her in a flat in Colchester when she went missing in December 2006.

Flanked in court by two police officers, he said that when he and Anneli woke up on Sunday, December 3 - the day she went missing - they had sex before getting up.

Anneli had arranged to go to her mother's house and he had walked her to the bus stop. There he gave her a kiss goodbye, expecting her to return that night.

“That was the last time I saw her,” he said.

Cross-examined by defence counsel Timothy Langdale QC, Mr Jefford denied knowing that she was working as a prostitute.

“She told me she was in the past and she didn't do it any more,” he said.

Mr Langdale then asked if he knew that she had a drug habit.

Mr Jefford, who is serving a sentence for drug and robbery offences, replied that he knew Anneli smoked cannabis and, although he guessed she might have been into harder drugs, he had never seen her take any.

He said that although Anneli did not have a mobile phone she had either used someone else's or a pay phone to contact him.

He said that during their relationship, Anneli had occasionally returned home late at night but had not stayed out all night without letting him know.

Mr Jefford added that when Anneli didn't come home on Sunday, December 3, after visiting her mother he hadn't contacted the police because he thought she might have stayed at a friend's house.

Mr Jefford was giving evidence in the trial of Steve Wright, of London Road, Ipswich.

Wright denies murdering Anneli, Tania Nicol, 19, Paula Clennell, 24, Gemma Adams, 25, and Annette Nicholls, 29, between October 29 and December 13, 2006.

The 49-year-old former pub landlord was charged with murdering the women after their bodies were found in countryside on the outskirts of Ipswich during a ten-day period shortly before Christmas that year.

Each of Wright's alleged victims had been working as prostitutes in the red-light district of Ipswich on the nights they disappeared.

Tania was the first to go missing and her disappearance was reported to police on November 1, 2006, after she failed to return home.

Gemma was reported missing on November 15, 2006, just over two weeks after Tania disappeared. Her body was found in Belstead Brook at Hintlesham on December 2 that year.

Less than a week later Tania's body was found two miles downstream at Copdock Mill.

Anneli's body was found in woodland at Nacton on December 10 and two days later the bodies of Paula and Annette were found near Levington.

The trial continues.