Louise Burke gave several different accounts to police about the events of November 17, 2006, the last day he was seen alive, Cambridge Crown Court heard yesterday.

She was also said to look "nervous" and failed to make eye contact with an officer during one interview.

She eventually told police Mr Scanlan left with his half-brother Mark Baigent at about 10pm that day and had not been seen since.

It is alleged Mark (27) and brother James Baigent (30) tricked him into going down to Surrey with them on the pretext to sort out their mother's will.

However, they, along with close friend Jeff Woods, are alleged to have brutally murdered him, chopped off his head and hands and buried his remains in dense woodland in Aldershot, Hampshire.

Yesterday, Miss Burke told jurors that she had first met Mark Baigent when he came to the home she shared with Mr Scanlan, in Dickens Street, Eastfield, Peterborough, on October 18, two days after his mother's death.

She said she took her rottweiler dog for a walk but found the pair fighting and arguing when she got back to the house.

She said: "They had their hands round each other's throats."

Prosecutor Timothy Spencer QC asked: "What was Mark saying?"

She replied: "He was blaming him for their mother's death. He was saying it was all his (Andrew's) fault. He was also shouting that he didn't care."

Miss Burke said that Mark Baigent returned to the house on November 17 and asked Mr Scanlan to go with him to Dorset to sort out their mother's will.

But under cross-examination, Nigel Lithman QC, representing Mark Baigent, revealed Miss Burke gave a number of different statements to police in the days after his disappearance.

They included that her boyfriend had left their home with both Baigents in a red car and that both incidents with Mark Baigent had happened on the same night.

Mr Lithman said: "There came a time, December 1, 2006, when the police pointed out to you all these inconsistencies and you admitted lying to the police. Are you aware you became a suspect in this inquiry because of your behaviour and attitude towards the police?"

Miss Burke replied that she did not.

Mark Baigent, of Medworth, Orton Goldhay, Peterborough, James Baigent, from Sandhurst, Surrey, and Woods, from Bracknell, Berkshire, all deny murder.

Charlotte Baigent (28), from Sandhurst, Surrey, who is alleged to have helped cover up the crime, denies three counts of assisting an offender and perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.