A PERSON caught on CCTV in the flat of former Colne teenager Kim Newson was too tall to be her, a court heard.

A jury was shown an enhanced image, which the prosecution said shows Stephen Charles Hughes on March 5 last year -- the day Miss Newson, 18, went missing.

Hughes, 41, denies murdering Miss Newson between March 4 and 29 last year.

Lincoln Crown Court was told the image was taken by a camera opposite the Monks Road house just after 3.57am that day.

Parts of Miss Newson's body were later found in the River Witham by police divers.

Forensic scientist Ashley Windsor told the court the image was one of a number he was given by police in July last year.

On October 1, he reconstructed the image at the flat, using his own equipment and Lincoln City Council's CCTV system.

Mr Windsor attempted to calculate the height of the figure by comparing it to the height of three police officers standing in the same position.

Mr Windsor said the unknown figure was believed to be the same as serving officer Dean James, whom he knew to be 6ft one-and-a-half inches tall.

There was no possibility, he said, that the figure could be Miss Newson herself, who was 5ft 3-and-a-half inches tall.

The court had earlier heard that Hughes, who lived in the Monks Road flat beneath Miss Newson, was 6ft and half-an-inch tall when wearing training shoes.

Mr Windsor said that his system allowed for an error of half an inch either way.

Earlier the court heard that a footprint found on Miss Newson's blood-stained birth certificate was identical to that of Hughes.

Lincolnshire Police fingerprint expert Stephen Belcher said there were more than 20 characteristics on the certificate that matched prints taken from Hughes.

The certificate had been discovered by police during a search of his flat on March 28 last year -- three weeks after Miss Newson went missing.

WPC Joanne Fortune told the jury she had discovered it in a corduroy jacket hung up in the defendant's bedroom.

(Proceeding)