Friend's final joke with Vicky

The best friend of murdered Vicky Hall choked back tears today as she described to a jury how she heard two high-pitched female screams on the night the schoolgirl disappeared.

Gemma Algar, 19, said she never suspected that the screams were Vicky's, whom she had left to walk home alone only moments earlier. She thought it was "somebody messing about".

Only next morning, when Vicky's mother rang to ask if she knew where her daughter was, did Miss Algar realise something was wrong, Norwich Crown Court heard.

Miss Algar and 17-year-old Vicky had walked most of the way home together from a nightclub after an evening's dancing. Miss Algar had taken off her shoes, and her last words to her friend were: "You will probably hear me say 'ouch' all the way home," the jury was told.

Five days later Vicky's naked body was discovered in a ditch of shallow water, 20 miles from her home in the Suffolk village of Trimley St Mary. She had been suffocated. She was identified by the earrings she had worn on the night out with her friend.

The Crown claims Vicky was snatched from the streets close to her home by local newspaper owner Graham Bradshaw in his Porsche.

Today Miss Algar described her anguish as the fun night out at their favourite club in Felixstowe ended in murder. She described Vicky as " caring, always with a smile on her face and happy". She added: "I spoke with her every day. If I didn't see her I would speak to her on the phone.

"We spoke about things we would not share with our parents. She was always there if you needed anybody to talk to. She would make time for you and was very open." A-level student

Vicky had dressed for the night out in a short, black dress and platform shoes. The two girls had danced for two hours at the Bandbox club before leaving at about 1am, stopping for chips at a local shop before starting the 45-minute walk home.

"As we reached Trimley we went in different directions to our homes and Vicky said she would ring me next morning," Miss Algar told the court. "Then she walked off across the road. I shouted, 'You will probably hear me say ouch all the way home' because I had not got my shoes on.

"She laughed and continued to walk off. About three or four minutes later I heard screams. There were two highpitched, female screams with just a few seconds between them.

"I didn't hear any other sounds. My initial impression was that it was somebody messing about. I didn't think anything else of it that night and didn't link it to Vicky."

Bradshaw, 27, owner of the Felixstowe Flyer free newspaper, denies murdering Vicky in September 1999.

The court has heard that a neighbour heard the " throaty" roar of Bradshaw's car at the same time as the screams were heard, and that soil from the driver's side of the car footwell matched samples from the ditch where Vicky's body was found.

The case continues.