German student Janet Muller 'burnt alive in car boot' at Ifield Golf Club near Horsham

Brighton University student Janet Muller was burned alive in a car boot parked at a golf club near Horsham, Guildford Crown Court heard. The 21-year-old German student was found in a charred Volkswagen Jetta at Ifield Golf Club in West Sussex in March 2015.

Christopher Jeffrey-Shaw, 27, of Beckenham, south London, denies murdering the student and told jurors that drug dealers ordered him to burn the car under the threat of death and he did not know Muller was in the boot. After setting fire to the car, Jeffrey-Shaw took a taxi home using a false name. It has also emerged that the Volkswagen Muller was found in was hired by Jeffrey-Shaw's girlfriend

Muller was admitted to Mill View Hospital with mental health problems in the weeks before her death. She went missing on two occasions on 12 March – the day before she was killed – with the last being at 10.15pm that evening

She was last seen approaching a car in Hove at in the early hours of 13 March. Jurors were told how phone records and CCTV footage showed the defendant's car was in the area that evening. The court heard there was no evidence the defendant and Muller "knew or associated with each other prior to the date of her death".

Prosecuting, Philip Bennetts QC described how Jeffrey-Shaw told police: "I am not getting done for something I haven't done." The trial continues.