A MAN accused of raping and murdering schoolgirl Laura Kane had tried to squeeze out crocodile tears for his victim while giving evidence, a jury was told yesterday.

Summing up the case against Colin Bainbridge, prosecutor John Milford QC said he had demonstrated he was a persistent liar, determined to hide the truth and had looked for pity for only himself.

Earlier Bainbridge, 35, a trusted friend of the Kane family, had described to Newcastle Crown Court how he had taken nine-year-old Laura to his home where he tied her up and gagged her in "a game of cowboys and Indians".

He said he had gone to feed his dog and returned 15 minutes later to find her dead.

He then hid her under the floorboards at his home in Calvert Terrace, Murton, where she was found ten days later.

Mr Milford said Bainbridge had perverted sexual intentions when he had taken Laura from her home in Penshaw, near Sunderland, last August 25.

He said: "Laura clearly trusted Bainbridge and would have needed little persuasion to go with him. On the day in question she was wearing what, for someone with an unnatural interest in small girls, was a provocative outfit.

"She had a bare middrift and short skirt and was twirling around in front of him, saying to him "don't I look nice".

He said that when police discovered Laura's body, Bainbridge had lied to detectives about her dying at her own home, because he wanted to cover up that he had spirited her away.

Mr Milford said: "This is a man who does not give up. A man who twists and turns and shifts the blame, who invents and seeks pity for himself, and who tried to squeeze out crocodile tears yesterday."

He added: "Surprising though it may be that anyone should try to kill a girl to try silence her, he was determined enough to do that. Just as he was determined to enough to hide her body under the floorboards and then live with her putrefying remains."

Bainbridge has denied murder, rape and indecent assault. The jury is expected to consider its verdict today.