The man accused of murdering Brighton schoolteacher Jane Longhurst today denied the charge.

Part-time musician Graham Coutts, 35, of Waterloo Street, Hove, pleaded not guilty to murder between March 13 and April 20.

Coutts was led in to court three at Lewes Crown Court, flanked by two security guards, just after 10.30am.

He wore a red shirt with the top button undone and cream trousers, and removed a pair of thick-rimmed spectacles as he stepped into the dock.

Coutts spoke just once during the ten-minute hearing. Looking straight at Judge Brown he denied the charge of murder, saying "not guilty" in a calm, measured voice.

He then listened intently, staring into the well of the dock, for the remaining minutes of the hearing as his barrister, Jeremy Gold, outlined his defence.

Judge Richard Brown remanded him in custody and set a provisional date of January 5 for the trial to begin.

Coutts is due to appear in court again on October 20. The trial in January is expected to last up to three weeks.

The judge also lifted restrictions which prevented publication of photographs of Coutts.

Miss Longhurst, a teacher at Uplands Special School in Brighton, disappeared on March 14.

She was last seen near the home she shared with her partner Malcolm Sentance in Shaftesbury Road, Brighton.

Her body was found at the RSPB's Pulborough Brooks reserve, in Wiggonholt, West Sussex, on April 19. She had been strangled.

Three hundred people attended her funeral at St Peter's Church, Brighton, in June.