A video of Vicky Hamilton showing the teenager in suggestive poses was played yesterday to jurors at the High Court in Dundee during the trial of the man accused of her murder.

Evidence in the trial ended yesterday as Detective Superintendent William Manson, 49, called as a defence witness, told how the video and other photographs had been seized during an investigation in 2001 when a heroin addict and would-be fashion photographer, Hugh Gunn, became a suspect in the case. Mr Manson, who led that stage of the investigation into Vicky's disappearance, had been investigating a supposed “confession” by Mr Gunn.

Peter Tobin, 62, denies abducting and murdering 15-year-old Vicky and burying her body parts. He has lodged a special defence of alibi, saying that he was in the South of England when she was abducted on February 10, 1991.

In court, members of the Hamilton family, including Vicky's sister Sharon Brown, 37, remained in their seats as the video was shown. Her father, Michael Hamilton, left the courtroom.

The man accused of killing her almost 18 years ago sat impassively in the dock as the three-minute film was played, but carefully screened from Vicky's family. Peter Tobin scribbled in his notebook, but on at least three occasions glanced at the screen.

Donald Findlay, defence QC, said: “I do not think it is appropriate this should be shown on public screens.” But, he added, he was obliged to ensure that Mr Tobin had the opportunity to see the video.

“Can you conceive in your wildest imagination, never mind as a police officer, anybody thinking that has anything to do with anybody wanting to get into the world of fashion,” asked Mr Findlay after playing the video. Mr Manson told the lawyer: “No, none.”

The court heard that, from the background, the video appeared to have been taken at the same time as photographs of Vicky posing with a whip, which have been shown to the jury. The detective told Frank Mulholland QC, the Solicitor General, prosecuting, that Mr Gunn, a former mental hospital patient now in his forties, had dismissed his alleged confessions as “just the gibberings of a drug addict”.

He was supposed to have given an account to a woman, also abusing heroin, of murdering Vicky with a hammer because she had “grassed” to police about his “kinky” photographs of her, then burying her. “The wee bitch deserved to die,” Mr Gunn is supposed to have said.

The defence closed their case yesterday without calling Mr Tobin to give evidence. Although he has not given evidence, the jury at the High Court in Dundee has seen video of Mr Tobin answering questions when police confronted him in July last year. He said that he would have been in the Portsmouth area visiting his toddler son.

Mr Tobin said that he could not explain how Vicky's skin came to be on a knife found in the loft of his former home in Bathgate, where Vicky might have been murdered. He admitted the knife was his, but denied he had ever met Vicky. Four months after the interview, Vicky's remains were discovered in the garden of a house in Margate, Kent, where Mr Tobin had also lived.

Mr Tobin faces a charge of abduction and murder and a second charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice. The charges allege that on February 10, 1991 in Bathgate, West Lothian, Tobin abducted 15-year-old Vicky of Redding, Falkirk, and took her to his then home in Robertson Avenue, Bathgate. There, or elsewhere, Mr Tobin is accused of drugging her, causing an injury to her neck during a struggle, committing a sexual assault and murdering Vicky. Between then and December 15, 1991 in Bathgate, Edinburgh and Margate in England it is alleged that Mr Tobin prevented Vicky's body being discovered.

The charge alleges that the body was hidden and that Mr Tobin cut Vicky in two, wrapped her in bin bags, hid the knife and concealed, transported and buried the body parts.

The trial, which has lasted four weeks, is expected to move into its final stages on Monday. Judge Lord Emslie told the jury that he would not be asking them to consider their verdict before Tuesday.

Times Recommends

• Charles blazes trail as sun king
• Thalidomiders win payout 50 years on
• Libel gag on talk of 'medical hurricane'