Tia Sharp: Neighbour 'Wasted Police Time'

A neighbour of the grandmother of murdered schoolgirl Tia Sharp told detectives he had seen her when in fact she was already dead, a court heard.

Bus driver Paul Meehan, 40, from Croydon, south London, is on trial charged with wasting police time.

He was the neighbour of Christine Sharp, whose boyfriend Stuart Hazell was jailed in May for a minimum of 38 years for killing 12-year-old Tia.

Meehan initially told police he had not seen Tia on August 3 last year, but later claimed he was "100% sure" he watched her walk past his home at around noon that day.

Jocelyn Ledward, prosecuting, said: "He described her outfit and person in detail."

She said this was "thereby in fact confirming Stuart Hazell's account of her having walked out of the door at that time".

Tia's mother Natalie sat in the public gallery at Croydon Magistrates' Court during the trial, which is set to last one day.

Miss Ledward said Meehan's claim had the result of "compounding the family's false hope" that she was still alive.

It also led detectives to conduct "labour intensive interviews", she added. "These were a waste of valuable police resources at a crucial time."

But she told the court: "There is absolutely no suggestion Mr Meehan was in league with Stuart Hazell."

Instead, she suggested he made the report "perhaps in order to increase his importance in the investigation".

The court was read a statement given to police by Meehan, in which he claimed he saw Tia walk towards a bus stop while he was having a cigarette in his front garden.

"From the time I saw Tia I didn't take my eyes off her," he told detectives.

He said the reason for watching her was "a parental thing" - but he did not attempt to talk to her as he thought she was wearing headphones.

Meehan insisted that "nobody has forced me" to make the police statement, saying: "I have made it under my own free will."

After his arrest, he told officers: "I definitely saw her leave the house. Whether she came back I don't know."

Meehan denies causing wasteful employment of the police by making a false report.