A friend of Milly Dowler, who was one of the last people to see the schoolgirl alive, has told the court about their last conversation.

Danielle Sykes gave evidence at the trial of convicted killer Levi Bellfield, 43, who denies kidnapping and murdering Milly nine years ago.

Miss Sykes told how she and her sister ate chips with the 13-year-old at a cafe in Walton station before she disappeared.

She said: “We parted and I gave her a hug and asked if she would be alright walking home on her own and she said ‘Yeah, I’ll be absolutely fine’.

“I then turned around and shouted back at her ‘I would not tell anyone what we had been talking about’.”

She told the court they had been discussing a boy Milly fancied.

She said: “We were both well and I assumed I would see her the next day at school.”

Milly usually walked home from Hersham station, but took a different route after her friend suggested they have some chips at Walton.

Miss Sykes told the court: “We were going to say goodbye on the train and I hugged her goodbye. I said something along the lines of ‘Would you like to get chips with me at the cafe at Walton?’ “She said ‘No, I’d better not’. I joked ‘Fine then’.”

The Hersham resident, now 23, said Milly then changed her mind.

She said: “She said 'I will come, because I have got nothing better to do'.”

Milly vanished on Thursday, March 21, 2002.

Bellfield also denies a further charge of attempting to kidnap schoolgirl Rachel Cowles on March 20, 2002.

Earlier in the trial, the jury was told of Bellfield's previous convictions, the murder of Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonell and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy.

The trial continues.