THE man accused of murdering student Janet Muller met her at a house just hours before she was found dead in the boot of a burning car.

Shortly after they met, Christopher Jeffrey-Shaw was told the 21-year-old went out with three men and was shot in a robbery gone wrong.

But prosecutors accused him of driving to Brighton, picking Janet Muller up, having sex with her, hitting her and burning the car knowing she was in the boot.

Taking to the stand at Guildford Crown Court, Jeffrey-Shaw said he was ordered to dispose of the car in which she was in the boot.

The 28-year-old said he did not know she was in there and tried to pull her out once the car was on fire.

The court previously heard the student had escaped from Hove’s Mill View hospital on March 12 last year.

Around 2pm the following day, she was found dead in the boot of a burnt out Volkswagen Jetta near Crawley.

Giving evidence, the defendant said he had started working for two travellers after falling into debt with them.

He said the men, who he called Steve and Mickey, had sent him to Brighton to drum up business.

He said he was in Brighton on the night of Miss Muller’s disappearance, March 12/13 and claims he was later sent to three addresses – two in Crawley and one in Croydon – by the travellers.

The following day, he said, he returned to Crawley at around 10am after being given another address.

He claims it was here he met one of the travellers, two other men and Miss Muller, who was taking cocaine.

She had last been spotted on CCTV in Hove shortly after 1am earlier that morning.

Jeffrey-Shaw said he stayed at the house while the four left in a car which the defendant had hired since March 11. He said half an hour later, Steve and one of the unknown men returned to the house with blood-stained clothes.

He said: “The guy I didn’t know said they had committed a robbery, it had gone wrong, and the third man that I didn’t know as well as the female, had been shot.”

He told the court he was ordered to the burn the car and he pulled into into Rusper Road, near Crawley, and set it alight.

At this point Miss Muller was still alive in the boot – but he claims he did not know.

After setting it on fire he said he opened the boot to retrieve belongings and that was when he discovered her.

He said: “I grabbed the arms with my left hand, and I was trying to pull.

“But I was slipping, my hand was slipping, there was no friction. The smoke turned jet black and thick and at that point I just backed off.”

Jeffrey-Shaw, of no fixed abode, denies murder.

The trial continues.

MAN WORKED FOR TRAVELLERS TO REPAY DEBT TO THEM

HAVING sat through two days of his murder trail, Christopher Jeffrey-Shaw took to the stand yesterday to give his account of the death of Janet Muller.

He told the jury that in the period leading up to her death, he had run into debt due to a drug habit.

In an attempt to repay that debt, he took out an £800 loan from two travellers called Steve and Mickey, he told the court.

He took the money and vanished, only for the travellers to track him down and force him to work for them, he said.

He said: “As a group they were selling drugs in the Brighton area – he wanted me to canvas for customers.”

He said he did this twice, driving down from London both times.

The second time – the night Miss Muller went missing – he had been told to meet Steve at Brighton Marina.

He said he was driven into town, told to talk to revellers outside clubs about buying drugs, and left the hire car with Steve.

Then he was told to pick up three bags from addresses in Crawley and Croydon, the jury heard.

Having picked up the bags, he got back to his mother’s house in Beckenham at about 6am, he said.

“I was woken up by a number of missed calls and I had a number of threatening messages from Steven,” he said.

“He thought I’d turned my phones off and stolen his phones.”

He said he was ordered to bring the bags to an address in Crawley where an angry Steve answered the door.

He said as he made his way inside, Miss Muller was in the lounge with two men – all taking drugs.

He said: “Steve said he was going to collect some money and all four of them left in the hire car.”

Forty-five minutes later, they arrive back at the house minus Miss Muller and one of the unknown men, he said.

He said: “First of all I thought they’d been in a food fight or something or their clothes had been altered.

“They had blood on their clothes. They were arguing about something.

“I could hear the words, but because I had no context, it was jibberish.

“The guy I didn’t know said they had committed a robbery, it had gone wrong, and the third man that I didn’t know as well as the female, had been shot.”

He said he was told to torch the car by Steve and dump it, so he left the house in Crawley, intending to drive away and ignore the order.

But as he drove, he noticed the back seat was drenched in blood, he said.

“Whatever they had done, I wasn’t involved, I couldn’t get in trouble for it,” he told the court.

“I thought of my kids. I can’t afford to sit in prison, I’m a dad, I have kids that rely on me.

“I thought at that stage it was in my best interest.

“I decided I needed to dump the car or I’m going to get into trouble for what these idiots had done.”

He bought the petrol, found a quiet spot so, in his words, nobody would get hurt, and set fire to the car in a lane off Rusper Road.

He claims he did not know Miss Muller was in the boot.

He said: “I remembered my trainers and my bag, so I turned around and popped the boot open “I’ve never set anything on fire with petrol before, but it just went up.

“I went to walk away and remembered about the bag and my trainers and then there in front of me was what looked like a dead body in the boot of the car. At which point, I froze.

“This feeling of just panic, adrenaline, fear, just washed over me.

“It was like I was in the middle of a road with a lorry coming towards me and I couldn’t move.

“I grabbed the arm with my left hand, and I was trying to pull.

“But I was slipping in the mud, my hand was slipping, there was no friction, it wasn’t like someone was saying help me. It was a human, it was a lot of weight.

“I did it for five or 10 seconds, but the smoke turned jet black and thick and at that point I just backed off.”

At this stage he made his way through fields to Waterhall Country House Hotel where he caught a taxi to Gatwick Station and made his way eventually back to London.

Asked if he had anything to do with her ending up in the boot, he said: “No, 100 per cent not.”

Asked if he had any idea she was in the boot when he set the car alight, he answered: “None, sir. Certainly not. Had I had known, I would have called an ambulance.

“I’m a normal person. Dead or alive, out of respect, you call an ambulance.

“I would never have done something like that to another person.”

“It’s horrific. Horrifying.”

After lunch it was put to Jeffrey-Shaw during cross-examination that he drove to Brighton, picked Miss Muller up, had sex with her, hit her and then subsequently burnt the car knowing she was in the boot.

He said: “I was with Miss Muller for a short time during the day of March 13.

“I didn’t leave Brighton with Janet.

“I didn’t arrive at Crawley with Janet.

“She must obviously had met these people in Brighton.

“Why would I put her in the boot of a car and kill her?

“My actions have led to the death of a human being, I have to live with that, but in no way did I intend to harm anybody.

“What vested interest would I have from seeing a person dead?

“I haven’t benefited at all.

“What explanation do you have that I’d do that?

“I’ve lost my life, my children have lost their father, my family have lost their son.

“Did I have sex with her, sir? I have a girlfriend.

“I don’t trawl the street looking for women.”