Chilling pictures of Tia Sharp shopping with the man who 'killed her just hours later': 12-year-old seen happily browsing magazines in Co-op with 'killer' she 'idolised'

Jurors read statement by Tia's grandmother Christine Bicknell



Her former boyfriend Stuart Hazell is accused of murdering the 12-year-old

She described Stuart as a 'drunk' who also smoked marijuana

She said that Hazell would get 'argumentative' after drinking vodka

Tia's mother held head in hands as court hears of discovery of her body



Prosecutors alleged that she died a 'sudden and violent' death

Her body was found a week later at her grandmother's house

Officer who first searched loft was 'worried about falling through ceiling'



Happily browsing magazines in a supermarket aisle, Tia Sharp is pictured in her final hours beside her alleged killer – a man she is said to have ‘idolised’.



Poignant CCTV footage played to a jury yesterday also showed the 12-year-old on her last journey chatting cheerfully with her grandmother’s boyfriend, Stuart Hazell.



Later that night 37-year-old Hazell is accused of suffocating Tia, photographing her naked body and hiding it in the loft, where it was found a week later despite several police searches.

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Together: Tia Sharp can be seen on a shopping trip on August 2 with Hazell, her grandmother's former boyfriend and the man who today admitted her murder

Grim: Hazell sexually assaulted and murdered Tia later in the night following this shopping trip

Trial: Jurors were shown CCTV footage of Hazell meeting Tia in Croydon, shopping in a co-op store and taking a tram home to New Addington. The pair are pictured together

Tia’s mother, Natalie Sharp, wept in the public gallery as the images were played to the Old Bailey.



The schoolgirl and Hazell, a window cleaner, were shown near the house in Croydon, south London, that he shared with Tia’s grandmother, Christine Bicknell.



Tia, in a yellow vest and grey leggings, spent 11 minutes in a Co-op supermarket where she pointed out groceries to Hazell.

At one point he put his hand on Tia’s shoulder to gently move her out of the way of an elderly shopper.



Afterwards, as they sat on the bus home, Tia was shown moving to a seat closer to Hazell so she could talk to him. The court heard how during the trip Tia received a message from her grandmother saying: ‘Make sure hoover under the bed, love you, thank you. Xxx.’



She replied straight away, saying: ‘Love you too and ok x x x x.’



Evidence: The court heard today from Tia's grandmother, Christine Bicknell, who said Hazell loved Tia and she idolised him

Victim: Tia is captured on the CCTV images looking at magazines while on the shopping trip with the man accused of murdering her

Prosecutors allege Tia was murdered in the early hours of August 3 last year while she was alone with Hazell as her grandmother worked overnight at a care home.



Miss Bicknell called Hazell from work and said she could hear Tia laughing in the background as they watched TV, the court heard. Hazell sent Miss Bicknell a text at 10.12pm saying: ‘Tia’s going to bed after Family Guy baby then I’m going to pass out.’



Another message from him at 11.44pm said: ‘Night, night baby, call you tomorrow.’



But the prosecution claim instead of going to bed, he attacked Tia over the next few hours then wrapped her body in a sheet and bin bags, taped it up and hid it in the loft.



Murder trial: Stuart Hazell, 37, left, denies killing schoolgirl Tia Sharp, right. Tia's grandmother, Christine Bicknell, today told the court Tia 'idolised' Hazell



Accused: A court sketch of Stuart Hazell flanked by two guards in the dock at the Old Bailey on the first day of his murder trial

The next day he phoned Tia’s mobile – which was charging in the kitchen. He then sent a text to Miss Bicknell asking: ‘Can you buy some milk and a few potatoes baby?’

When she returned home Hazell told her Tia had gone to buy some flip flops at a shopping centre and had forgotten her phone.



That evening he cooked a meal and said he had left chips for Tia ready to be ‘cooked fresh’ when she got back.



He later joined the search when her long absence raised the alarm.



Miss Bicknell said: ‘It didn’t cross my mind that he would hurt her. He loved Tia, she idolised him.’



Relative: Christine Bicknell is the grandmother of Tia Sharp, who was the girlfriend of Stuart Hazell when Tia went missing.The jury was today read a statement by Ms Bicknell

She added: ‘He absolutely adored all the grandkids and they loved him to pieces. They would kiss and cuddle him.’



And she said Tia used to spend more time with Hazell than her, describing her as his ‘cling-on’.



The court also heard how police failed to discover Tia’s body for a week after she vanished, despite two searches of the loft where she was hidden.



The first was carried out by police sergeant Keith Lyons the day after Tia was reported missing. He said he had to balance on a stool that was propped on a chair to get into the loft space.



In a statement read to the court, he said: ‘My legs were dangling down. I know I’m clumsy and I was concerned I was going to go through the roof.



‘I was searching for a missing girl and from what I could see the loft seemed very clear. I thought “she is not hiding in here”.’



Early the following morning two officers spent around 25 minutes searching the loft.



PC Steven Jeffries, one of the pair involved, said: ‘I have never searched a loft before and I didn’t want to cause any damage.’



On a third search of the house a specially trained dog signalled towards the ceiling under the loft, but officers decided the animal was too big to take up there.



It was only after they noticed a stench near the top of the house that they organised a new search.



This time they found Tia wrapped in a ‘body shaped package’ within three feet of the loft hatch.



Hazell, of New Addington, Croydon, denies killing the schoolgirl.



In her statement to police, Ms Bicknell said she arrived back home from work on the afternoon of August 3 to find Hazell at home alone.

'He was either watching TV or on the PlayStation,' she said. 'I think he was wearing shorts and T-shirt and blue slippers.

'I said to Stuart, where's Tia? He told me she had gone to Croydon, she wanted to get a pair of slippers and he told her to be back by 6pm.'



She said she started to get worried when Tia was not back by 7.50pm and went out in the car with Hazell to look for her at a local fair.

At around 10pm she and her daughter Natalie went to the police station to report Tia missing before going home.

In the dock: A court sketch of Stuart Hazell, accused of the murder of Tia Sharp, as he sits in the dock at the Old Bailey in London, watched by her mother Natalie Sharp

'I was worried sick and scared. I got the impression Stuart was worried too. I thought he must be feeling guilty because he told her to go to Croydon.'



Ms Bicknell said that Hazell was 'under pressure because people were pointing fingers at him saying he was the last person to see her.'



'I could see the look on his face,' she added. 'I knew he had a lot of s**t going on.'

Over the next week the couple hardly left the house because of the press camped outside, the court heard.

Hazell disappeared on August 9 after leaving the house at around 6am and was not arrested until after Tia's body was found in the loft the next day.

He left his partner a note reading: 'Back in a bit baby, went for a walk before press get here xxxx love you.'



Leaving: Natalie Sharp and David Niles leaving the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, in London

'He had been in a daze, he had been walking around aimlessly. I assumed he had gone to clear his head. He had been stuck in the house for a week.'

Ms Bicknell said she noticed a smell in the house that night but thought it was because one of the cats had gone to the toilet somewhere.

Jurors have heard a picture of an underage girl lying naked on Tia's bed was found on a camera memory card.

Ms Bicknell said: 'I have been shown an image which I believe must be Tia as it's a child's body and it's her bed. I recognised the quilt cover.'



Mrs Bicknell said she had lived at her home since November 1994 and first met Hazell in around 2002 while working as a barmaid at the Raynes Park Tavern.

Hazell went out with her daughter Natalie before she started going out with him on April 23, 2007.

She said: 'They had a relationship but it was not an issue for me. They went out for a couple of weeks in 2002/3.'

Mrs Bicknell described Stuart as a 'drunk' who often had two cans of Foster's lager during the evening.



She said that Hazell would get 'argumentative' after drinking vodka, but that she had told him not to consume it in the house.

He also smoked marijuana, which made him 'dopey', the court heard.

She said she would 'go ballistic' at him if she ever caught him drinking vodka, which would make him 'go on and on' about things that had been sorted out long ago.

'We have never had a rocky period in our relationship that I can think of,' she added.

Mrs Bicknell said Hazell had known Tia since she was really small and said she thought he 'adored all the grandkids'.

She said: 'He doesn't tell them off, he doesn't shout at them. He doesn't smack them. He is not an ogre. He is not horrible. He is so soft, the most I get off him is he raises his voice to me.'



Her statement said Hazell was not somebody she 'dragged in from the street', but had had a relationship with him for five and a half years.

'Tia was not the sort of girl you could groom,' she said. 'She was a mouthy 12-year-old - you couldn't force her to do anything.

'She is a mini Natalie (Tia's mother), which is a mini-me.'

She added: 'I knew nothing about her death. If I knew, he would be dead - I would be inside because I would have killed him.

'I found out the same time as everybody else, that Friday. I didn't know anything.'



Support: The natural father of Tia Sharp, Steve Carter, is pictured arriving at the Old Bailey today with girlfriend Melissa Potter

Tia's body was found in the 'excessively hot' loft, and she was identified through DNA testing and dental records, the jury was told.

Tia's mother held her head in her hands as the discovery of her daughter's body was described.

Her grandmother ran from the public gallery and could be heard sobbing outside court after listening to how her 12-year-old granddaughter's body was discovered in her loft.

A cardboard box containing two plastic bags - one with the yellow top and grey leggings Tia was last seen wearing and another with a sweet wrapper and a pair of broken glasses in - were found next to her body.

Police officers also recovered a Tesco carrier bag containing a pair of Nike trainers and a T-shirt with 'marks and stains' on it.

Jocelyn Ledward, prosecuting, said: 'An officer became aware of a large wrapped package. It appeared to be dust free and body shaped and revealed a left big toe on the badly decomposing body.

This Sainsbury's plastic bag, a yellow vest and light grey trousers that police say were found in Stuart Hazell's loft were shown in court during his trial for the murder of Tia Sharp 'The body was subsequently identified as that of Tia Sharp by DNA and fingerprints.' Detective Constable Daniel Chatfield said: 'The loft was extremely confined. It was very hot and quite chaotic. After approximately 10 minutes the body was found. My colleague alerted me to what he believed to be the body of Tia. On the side nearest to me I could see a foot. I could reach her ankles with my arms, it was three foot away at most.' He added that they found a 'cardboard box containing two further plastic bags. One was a Sainsbury's bag containing a yellow top and pair of grey leggings.' The court heard they were the clothes Tia was last seen wearing. 'The other bag contained a sweet wrapper, or an ice cream wrapper which has been wrapped in a page of the Metro newspaper and a pair of broken spectacles. A Tesco bag containing a white trainer shoe was also found wrapped in newspaper. 'In another bag we found a trainer and a T-shirt which had marks and stains on.' Hazell complained to his boss that the press were making him look like 'Jack the Ripper' after Tia Sharp's disappearance, the court was also told. He exchanged a series of text messages with Adrian Van Aalst after failing to turn up to a work meeting on the morning of August 3, 2012. The prosecution claim he killed Tia during the previous night. Mr Van Aalst, who ran the window-cleaning business AVA Windows, said Hazell was 'polite, friendly and well-presented' but was able to change his accounts of events. In February 2012 Hazell went into 'great detail' about how his father had died of a heart attack, took time off work and even broke down in tears while on the job. 'If this was not true and his father is not dead, I would say he was a fantastic liar,' said Mr Van Aalst.

At 8.41am on August 3 he sent a text asking: 'You ok??' but received no reply. The next morning he texted asking if Hazell was 'calling it a day'.

This shoe found wrapped in newspaper in a Tesco bag and damaged spectacles in a sweet wrapper were also shown to the jury. Police say they were found in the loft near the body of Tia Sharp



Hazell replied: 'Sorry mate but my granddaughter is missing. We reported it to the police. She is 12 years old. We have been scouring parks. It's on the critical list. It's all over Facebook and Twitter.'



Mr Van Aalst asked Hazell if there had been any arguments between Tia and her mother and he replied: 'Yeah, sort of.'



Hazell then claimed that Tia had gone missing at midday on August 3 and Mr Van Aalst blurted out: 'What happened to you with work in the morning?'



'Stuart started to stutter back, he was very hesitant, there was a lot of umming. He went on to say he had his granddaughter and he was mumbling away.'



When confronted about being the last person to see Tia alive, Hazell replied: 'Na, na, na mate.'



On August 5 Hazell texted: 'Still no news. This is f*****g nightmare come true. Didn't even think this would or even could happen.'



Two days later Hazell claimed his neighbour had seen Tia coming out his front door and heading towards the bus stop.

Then on August 8 at 13.44 he texted Mr Van Aalst about the press camped outside his front door. 'B******s are getting everything wrong, they are making me look like Jack the Ripper.'



Mr Van Aalst replied to tell him not to talk to the press because they would 'twist and turn anything you say to make you look guilty.'



Hazell replied: 'Hand on heart mate, I don't know where she is. I wish I did. This is madness. I had nothing to do with this.'

On Monday, the jury heard the prosecution case that Hazell photographed the 12-year-old’s naked body after he suffocated her.

The jury was told the boyfriend of Tia’s grandmother then hid her body in bin bags in the loft, where it was found a week later.



The Old Bailey heard that in the weeks before her death Hazell, 37, who was obsessed with paedophile websites, had repeatedly filmed Tia as she slept – and on one occasion as she rubbed cream on her legs while in her underwear.

Tia’s mother Natalie Sharp wept and rushed from the courtroom as footage of her daughter was played.

The jury was shown a picture of Tia naked, which the prosecution alleges was taken by Hazell after he killed her.

Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC said Hazell, who regularly searched paedophile websites and had a collection of graphic child abuse images, took the picture for his ‘sexual excitement’ between 3am and 6am on August 3 last year while Tia’s grandmother Christine was out working a night shift at a care home.

Relatives of Tia and two jurors sobbed after the image was shown to the court.

Tragic: An image of murdered schoolgirl Tia Sharp handed out by police while they appealed for information (left) Tia's mother Natalie Sharp is pictured leaving the Old Bailey (right)



Outlining the case against him, Mr Edis said Tia, who regularly stayed at Hazell’s house, had suffered a ‘sudden and violent’ death.

Pathologists believe she was suffocated but cannot be certain as the body had started to decompose by the time it was found, he said.

While on remand at Belmarsh Prison, Hazell told guards that Tia had broken her neck accidentally falling down the stairs.

But pathologists were unable to find any evidence of a broken neck or skull fracture consistent with dying from a fall, Mr Edis said.

‘What we know is that after she died he put her in the loft,’ he said.

‘That’s not what you would normally do with someone who has suffered an accident.’

When Tia was reported missing, Hazell told her family and police that he had seen her leaving his house to meet a friend.

Relatives, friends and neighbours carried out a huge search.

During the week-long hunt, Tia’s mother went to stay at Hazell’s house, unaware that her daughter’s body was hidden upstairs.

Hazell even made a TV appeal for Tia’s safe return and criticised those who suggested he had something to do with her disappearance.

In an interview Hazell gave to ITV he appealed for Tia’s safe return, insisted she was like his own child, described her as ‘a golden angel’ and said he did not know what had happened to her.

Mr Edis added: ‘He was playing the role of a grieving granddad who wanted nothing more than for her to come home.

‘He, of course, knew perfectly well where she was but wasn’t telling anyone.’



A day after the interview, police – who had twice searched Hazell’s home but found nothing – carried out a third search and discovered Tia’s body.

They found her clothes along with Hazell’s sweatshirt and broken glasses in a bin bag in the loft.

Her clothes bore traces of Hazell’s DNA, and Tia’s blood was found on his belt.

Police also found 11 pictures of Tia sleeping and three videos of her asleep – part of a collection of videos and photographs recovered from two memory cards hidden in Hazell’s house.

Mr Edis said footage of Tia rubbing cream into her legs was filmed secretly by Hazell.

Officers found images of other girls being abused and discovered Hazell made regular internet searches on a site popular with paedophiles, the court heard.

And during the week Tia’s body was in his loft, he viewed an incest website.

At the start of the case judge Mr Justice Nicol asked the jury to keep calm and rational.

He said: ‘Cases like these can arouse emotion but you must set emotion aside.’



The trial continues.

POLICE OFFICERS MISSED TWO CHANCES TO FIND TIA'S BODY IN LOFT

Police officers - including a specialist search team - missed two chances to find Tia Sharp's body in her grandma's loft, the court heard today. Officers searched the house in New Addington, south London in the days after the 12-year-old was reported missing last August. But despite looking in the loft, Tia's decomposing body was not found until August 10 - a week after she disappeared. Investigation: Police officers - including a specialist search team - missed two chances to find Tia Sharp's body in her grandma's loft, the court heard today. This picture shows a police search of the home at the time The Old Bailey heard police first searched the house on August 4 - the day after Tia's mother Natalie filed a missing person's report. Hazell followed the officer upstairs and gave him a chair to climb up, telling him that was what he always used to get up there, jurors were told. After only five minutes the officer, who said he was surprised how clear and junk free it was, came down as could not see any sign of a live girl as he said at that point it was a 'preliminary search for a missing person.' Sgt Keith Lyons told the court: 'I was surprised how clear it was. I expected there to me more in there. It seemed quite small. There appeared to be nothing in the loft except for the water tank. 'I didn't move around the loft further as I would have to crawl. I was searching for a missing girl and the loft seemed very clear and I thought she's not hiding there. 'I felt it wasn't safe enough and I would fall through the roof.' The officer said he looked into the water tank and the other side of it but did not see anything. 'As far as I was concerned it was a preliminary search for a missing person. I was up there for five minutes looking around.' A team of six specialist officers attended the house the next day on August 5 to again search the premises. Once more they looked in the loft while the family including Hazell, who was said to be 'very quiet and calm,' sat smoking downstairs. Officer Steve Jeffries carried out the second 20-minute minute search of the loft on August 5. He said: 'I was considering areas where the girl might be hiding in or have left a note. I positioned myself as best as I could to look around both sides of the tank. I couldn't see anything of interest. 'I looked around into the corners but I couldn't see the missing girl and I was satisfied she couldn't be hiding there.' PC Jeffries said that he saw some bags and a suitcase in the loft but thought they contained clothes.

The officer, who the court heard had never searched a loft before, said he could not smell a decomposing body, a smell he was familiar, with and was satisfied there was nothing up there. Discovery: Police officers search garages next to the home of Christine Sharp after Tia's body was found in the loft It was not until police attended the property a third time on August 10 and noticed a bad smell coming from upstairs that Tia was discovered. A police dog called Milly was brought in to help locate her and picked up scents around one of the bedrooms, the bathroom sink and the landing below the loft. An officer then went up in the loft and after moving items out of the way found a 'large wrapped package that appeared dust free and body shaped.'

Tia's mum Natalie covered her face with her hands and had to leave court as she heard Tia's left big toe in a badly decomposed state was sticking out from the bin bags she had been wrapped in. The youngster was later identified by DNA and fingerprints. Detective Constable Daniel Chatfield, who found Tia's body as he and a crime scene manager searched the loft because of the smell, said: 'The loft was extremely confined, it was very hot and quite chaotic, so there were a lot of boxes and bags around the hatch entrances which needed to be moved in order to search further into the loft. 'After about 10 minutes my colleague Mr Langley had alerted me to what he believed to be the body of Tia. 'By this time Mr Langley was inside the loft, I was stood on a step ladder so from waist upwards I was in the loft. 'From there I could see towards me a long package which appeared to be bin liners, from the side nearest to me I could see a foot.'