THE trial of a man accused of murdering missing North Yorkshire teenager Jenny Nicholl could go ahead before the end of the year.

David William Hodgson made his first crown court appearance in a short preliminary hearing yesterday at Teesside.

Mr Hodgson, 47, of Olav Road, Richmond, North Yorkshire, who was wearing a dark blue polo shirt, spoke only to confirm his name when asked by the court clerk.

The murder charge was not put to him and no plea was entered.

The hearing had been put back for three hours because of a delay in bringing the defendant to court.

Miss Nicholl's parents, Brian and Ann, were not present and the public gallery was empty.

Jenny was 19 when she disappeared from her former home in Bolton Avenue, Richmond, on June 30, 2005.

Despite a number of searches by North Yorkshire police, her body has never been found.

At first, the inquiry was treated as a missing persons case, but police later announced, four months into the investigation, that it had become a murder inquiry.

Mr Hodgson, a married father- of-one, was first arrested on suspicion of murder in January last year, but was released from bail in September.

He was re-arrested earlier this month and charged with Miss Nicholl's murder.

Prosecuting, James Goss admitted that the case was unusual in that her body has never been found.

He said that the length of the police investigation had resulted in a "vast amount" of material being collected, mainly relating to possible sightings of Miss Nicholl. This included what he described as 16,000 items of unused material.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, said that it was desirable for Mr Hodgson's trial to take place before Christmas.

Judge Fox said that the date of a further directions hearing would be fixed in the next seven days for the first week in August.

Remanding Mr Hodgson in custody, he told him: "I shall do whatever I can to try to ensure that your trial will take place this year. If it cannot, there will be an unsurmountable reason for that."

It is thought the trial will last about four weeks and be heard by a high court judge.

No application for bail was made by Mr Hodgson's defence team.