The mother of murdered schoolgirl Tia Sharp walked out of court as her mother's neighbour said he did not intially tell a detective he had seen her daughter on the day she went missing because he "wanted to get back to his children" who were home alone.

Paul Meehan, who lived next door to the 12-year-old's grandmother, initally told police he had not seen the schoolgirl on Friday, August 3.

The court heard three days later the 40-year-old told Det Con Gavin Seeley he saw the schoolgirl leave the property in The Lindens, New Addington, at about 12pm.

Croydon Magistrates Court heard Meehan had been at Tia's grandmother's house earlier that day, but did not mention the sighting to the schoolgirl's family or detectives that were present.

Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward asked Mr Meehan why he had said nothing.

Giving evidence he said: "I didn't feel it was appropriate to mention anything to the family."

Miss Ledward said: "You are stood in the kitchen with Detective Seeley, yet you didn't mention to him at all at that stage that you had seen her."

"I wanted to get back to my children who were indoors on their own," Mr Meehan replied.

In police statements read out in court this morning, Mr Meehan claimed he told officers carrying out door to door enquiries about the sighting in the days after Tia went missing.

But PC Aaron Tugwell who visited Mr Meehan on August 4, said the bus driver told him he had not seen her since the previous weekend.

Asked why he didn't mention the sighting to PC Tugwell, Mr Meehan said: "I was tired, I was not fully awake when the door knocked on Saturday morning."

Miss Ledward said: "You told what you thought would be a white lie, something you believed was true, but something you hadn't seen at all.

"You did that to draw attention to yourself, to draw attention to yourself as the last person to see Tia."

The court heard police considered Mr Meehan's reported sighting "significant," as it backed up Stuart Hazell's claim that Tia left the house.

David Healey, defending, asked Mr Meehan if he stil believed he saw someone leave his neighbour's house on the day Tia went missing.

He said: "I still have a recollection of someone, now knowing it is not Tia, walking up that path and down the public pathway towards the bus stop."

Mr Meehan denies wasting police time.

The case continues.