The older sister of schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton – whose body was found in a Margate garden last year – told a murder trial of the last time she ever saw the teenager more than 17 years ago.

Sharon Brown described how the pair hugged each other tightly before Vicky got on a bus home after spending the weekend with her at her home in West Lothian, Scotland.

Peter Tobin, 62, is on trial accused of murdering the schoolgirl.Tobin denies abducting Vicky on February 10 1991 and taking her to Robertson Avenue in Bathgate, West Lothian, where he is alleged to have lived.

It is alleged that there or elsewhere he drugged her, indecently assaulted her and murdered her.

He is also accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice between February 10 1991 and December 15 1991 at Bathgate, Edinburgh, Margate and elsewhere. He is charged with concealing Vicky’s body, cutting it in two, and transporting and burying the parts.

Tobin denies all the charges against him and has lodged a special defence of alibi, saying he was in the Portsmouth area and was travelling to Scotland when the schoolgirl vanished.

Vicky's sister, Sharon Brown, told the court how she was delighted when the teenager come to stay with her at her home in Livingston, West Lothian.

She described how they spent Friday evening and Saturday together, chatting, shopping and socialising, before Vicky left to return to her mother’s house in the village of Redding, near Falkirk.

Ms Brown told the court: "We hugged each other really tightly.

"She asked me to repeat and repeat and repeat where she would get off the bus and get on the next bus. She was really, really nervous about the journey," she said.

Ms Brown told Solicitor General Frank Mulholland QC, prosecuting: "That’s the last time I ever saw her."

Ms Brown said her sister was wearing dark, flared jeans, a polo shirt, a grey sweatshirt and a black bomber-type jacket with an orange lining.

She was carrying a sports holdall and a shoulder bag containing a purse, the court heard.

The trial continues.