It sounded like an average Saturday afternoon for a young couple in Brighton.

A morning lounging around, a walk into the city centre, a browse around the shops and a stroll along the seafront.

Graham Coutts could describe his Easter weekend shopping trip with girlfriend Lisa Stephens in perfect detail - the route they took, the stores they went to, including Mothercare: They were expecting a baby.

On day four of his trial yesterday Lewes Crown Court had a chance to hear Coutts' story in his own words for the first time as the transcripts of his interviews with police were read out by prosecutor John Kelsey-Fry.

First, the court heard the statement Coutts made on March 21, a week after Jane went missing. He mentioned Jane's phone call on the morning of her disappearance, summing it up as "a normal general conversation ... nothing out of the ordinary."

By April 24, suspicion had begun to fall on Coutts.

Detective Constable Dave Wright made an appointment to re-interview Coutts at his home in Waterloo Street, Hove, and Coutts poured out a full account of how he had spent the day Jane went missing and the day she had been found.

Of the first, March 14, he said he had "a good recollection". He had got up about 7.30am and noted it was a sunny day before driving his girlfriend to work at Cardinal Newman School in Hove. He was back home by about 8.30am.

The phone rang about 10.30am. It was Jane, asking after Lisa.

Coutts remembered saying something like "She's okay, still a bit sick," then perhaps mentioning Lisa's scan, that everything appeared fine and he could see the baby.

Coutts had asked if Jane's boyfriend Malcolm Sentance had watched the Kleeneze video he had lent him - Malcolm had apparently expressed an interest in the job - but Jane didn't know anything about it.

Coutts described how after Jane's phone call he did some cleaning and then took a shower. About 11.30am he called Lisa to see how she was feeling but didn't mention Jane was asking after her, explaining to the police: "I'm not the best message taker in the world."

For the next couple of hours he worked on his computer then paid a brief visit to a friend in Clarendon Villas.

He drove to Saltdean for a Kleeneze round, although he could not remember much detail apart from one call in Rodmell Avenue.

Lisa was home by the time he returned and they had watched television. He remembered Dawn French on Comic Relief.

Coutts' recalled the day Jane's body was discovered on April 19. He and Lisa went shopping in Brighton, arriving back about 6pm.

It was a Bank Holiday Saturday night but he had left the house about 7pm to do a Kleeneze round. When he got home about an hour and a half later he "stuck the telly on, had a glass of wine and tidied up".

As the police repeatedly pressed him on where his Kleeneze round had taken him, Coutts drew a blank.

He told them: "I don't know if Saturday was one of those nights when no one was in."

It was 8pm that day when a passing motorist spotted a fire that turned out to be the remains of Jane Longhurst.