The boyfriend of a murdered prostitute whose body was found dumped in a lay-by denied he had been involved in a plot to rob the client she had been with in the hours before she died.

The body of 34-year-old Anita Kapoor was found by a horrified truck driver stopping for a rest in a lay-by near Gerrards Cross at around 8:30am on June 23 this year.

A 34-year-old man, who was previously not known to the victim, was subsequently arrested the following day and charged with her murder.

The defendant, Navin Mohan, stood before a jury at Reading Crown Court this week accused of murdering the young woman.

Yesterday, the defence accused Ms Kapoor’s boyfriend, Stanley Flanders, of planning to steal £300 from the man who had picked up his partner in the early hours of the morning.

He was spotted on CCTV in an area near the supermarket where she was last seen, looking into cars supposedly seeking the man who was with Ms Kapoor.

Mr Flanders - who had previously been accused of being Ms Kapoor's "pimp" - told jurors he was actually looking for his partner after hearing a phone call where she begged for her life.

He did not call police and report Ms Kapoor as missing for nearly another hour and it was claimed the phone call was made up to cover for the fact he was planning to carry out a robbery.

He denied all the claims and said he did not approve of Ms Kapoor's prostitution.

Ms Kapoor's body was found a few hours after she had been reported as being in trouble by Mr Flanders, having been strangled to death.

Jurors were told Mohan was seen picking her up in his red Nissan Micra in Southall before driving her to a supermarket in nearby Hayes.

The jury was shown CCTV footage of Mr Flanders turning around and walking to follow Mohan's car when it drove past him in an area of Hayes on the morning.

It was suggested he did this because he knew Ms Kapoor was in a red car, which Mr Flanders denied.

He said: "I was looking everywhere. I was running in the middle of the road, on the pavement - I was going everywhere. I was simply looking for my missing girlfriend.

"I'm not paying any interest to any car, I was looking for my girlfriend. I looked in a lot of cars, I looked in buses, at passers-by. I kept thinking I saw her.”

Mr Flanders - who, the jury was told, was initially arrested on suspicion of murdering Ms Kapoor - said that had he seen his partner in Mohan's car, he would have called the police immediately.

Mohan, of Quaker Lane, Southall, denies murdering Ms Kapoor.

The trial continues.