Caller claimed ‘I killed Paige’

The flats on All Hallows Road, Bispham, where Paige Chivers, was said to have stayed

Rebecca Lucas told Preston Crown Court she was a friend of defendant Robert Ewing when Paige went missing.

She said Ewing, who denies murdering Paige, had taken the call either at his flat in All Hallows Road Bispham, or while they were walking.

Ms Lucas, 27, said she couldn’t hear what was said on the phone, but afterwards Ewing had claimed the caller had confessed to killing Paige.

She also told the court she had seen Paige visit Ewing’s flat before the former Montgomery School pupil disappeared almost eight years ago.

Ms Lucas said: “She asked Bob if she could stay there. He said she couldn’t, but she could come in for a brew.”

Ms Lucas said she left the flat at about 4.30pm or 5pm that day, leaving Paige in the flat.

Ms Lucas said she had been a regular visitor to Ewing’s flat and considered him a friend.

She told the court she had seen Paige drinking alcohol.

However, she had never seen the teenager taking drugs at Ewing’s home.

Ms Lucas said she had spoken to Ewing on a number of occasions since Paige’s disappearance in August 2007, and he had often wondered where Paige could be.

On one occasion he texted her to say Paige had left town with some “gypsies”.

Paige’s friend Tiffany Bell, 26, said the teenager had stayed at Ewing’s flat after being badly affected by her mother Sheila’s death.

She said Paige began to drink heavily and smoke cannabis. Once or twice she had seen her take cocaine.

Stuart Denney, defending Ewing, asked Ms Bell in cross examination: “Are you aware that on occasions Paige would go missing for a day or two? Do you know where she would have gone to?”

She replied: “No, she’s got a mind of her own.”

However, she agreed Paige would often go off with strangers and older men.

Ewing, 60, also denies doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of justice. Co-defendant, Gareth Dewhurst, 46, of Duncan Avenue, Bispham, denies assisting an offender, a serious sex offence and also doing an act tended and intended to pervert the course of justice.

(Proceeding)

‘No body has been recovered but you can be sure that Paige Chivers is dead...’

Victim’s dad was ‘violent’ court told

UPDATED: Paige Chivers murder trial underway

Paige Chivers asked her brother to leave home with her