Rikki Neave: Accused James Watson met victim on the day he went missing

Rikki Neave's body was found near his Peterborough home on 29 November 1994

A police officer's son accused of murdering schoolboy Rikki Neave has denied having an unhealthy interest in dead birds and young children.

Rikki's body was found near his Peterborough home on 29 November 1994. He had been strangled.

An Old Bailey jury in London heard James Watson was seen with him on the morning of 28 November, when both children should have been at school.

Mr Watson, who was 13 at the time of Rikki's death, denies murder.

Giving evidence, Watson told jurors that their interaction on 28 November was the "first and only time" he had met Rikki.

He dismissed allegations he was interested in dead birds and images of young children in underwear.

Mr Watson was taken into care after his father, a serving police officer with Cambridgeshire Police, was arrested and subsequently jailed, the court was told.

He could not stay with his mother, the jury heard, because of the person she was living with.

Mr Watson told the court: "It was not my fault that I had to leave and go into care."

He said he hated school and would play truant "an awful lot".

"I did not fit in," he told the jury. "I did not like having to sit there for hours. I didn't have any friends at school."

Police on the scene shortly after the Rikki Neave's body was found in Peterborough in 1994

Mr Watson's lawyer, Jennifer Dempster QC, told jurors it was "incontrovertibly" proven that Watson had met Rikki and there were a "few minutes" of interaction between the two boys.

But there was "simply no evidence" he was in the woods for two hours, during which time it is alleged he killed Rikki, she said.

Rikki's body was found shortly after 12:00 GMT on 29 November, said Ms Dempster. But when the same location was searched at 19:30 the evening before nothing has been found, the jury heard.

The defence lawyer suggested if that was right, Rikki or his body was moved there under the cover of darkness which would rule out Mr Watson because he would have been at his children's home.

Jurors were told after being dropped off at school by taxi, Mr Watson would walk around, sometimes at a shopping centre, before getting picked up for the journey back to the children's home.

He denied ever going into the home of Rikki and his family on the Welland estate in Peterborough.

James Watson (right) gave evidence as his trial at the Old Bailey and was questioned by his lawyer Jennifer Dempster QC (left)

Mr Watson also denied a former girlfriend's evidence that he once killed a sparrow with a stone, saying: "All my life I have always liked animals, and birds in particular."

Ms Dempster, asked about a claim that he kept a "bespoke" clothing catalogue, featuring young children in underwear, in his room when he was in care.

Mr Watson told the court: "Absolutely not."

Ms Dempster said: "If you had a Littlewoods-type catalogue did you have that for any purpose connected with looking at pictures of children?"

Mr Watson dismissed the suggestion as "crazy" and insisted he had no interest in that type of material.

Following a cold case review of Rikki's death, Mr Watson's DNA was found on Rikki's clothes which were dumped in a bin near the woods, jurors have heard.

The trial continues.

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