THE accused in a murder trial challenged the prosecutor yesterday to prove he was responsible. ``You have not got me on video killing her. So prove it.''

Mr Gavin McGuire told a hushed High Court in Glasgow that he had been nowhere near the scene where the 16-year-old girl died. When asked if he had abducted and strangled her replied: ``No, not at all.''

The 37-year-old Saltcoats man denies the abduction, sexual assault and murder of Mhairi Julyan in a bus depot in MacKinlay Place, Kilmarnock, on December 16 last year.

When Mr McGuire was asked by Advocate-depute Alan Turnbull why he had lied several times to police about the time and his movements the night Miss Julyan died he replied: ``I never lied. I told the police what my recollection was at the time.''

He said his memory came back after police showed him pictured on a shopping video timed at 9.22pm.

He said that witnesses who saw him near the murder scene had been mistaken, and that his mother, Nettie, 66, was wrong about what time he arrived home the night the teenager vanished and claimed it must have been much earlier.

He insisted she had not seen mud on his jeans the night he arrived at her home in Glencairn Street, Stevenston, Ayrshire, where he was staying at the time and that he got muddy walking the dog next day.

He told detectives three times - on January 8, 17, and 26 - that he had left the Tudor Bar in Titchfield Street, Kilmarnock, at 10.45pm, more than an hour after Miss Julyan vanished on her way home after a Christmas pantomime at the Palace Theatre.

On January 17, Mr McGuire told police: ``I am sure I left the Tudor pub at 10.45pm. I looked at my watch and I thought it was 9.45pm and then realised it was 10.45pm and I left in a hurry.''

Mr Turnbull: ``This turns out to be a load of rubbish as you later admitted it was around 9.10pm.''

Mr McGuire replied: ``I must have looked at my watch wrong.''

Mr McGuire changed his story after he was shown a video film of himself walking through the Burns Mall shopping centre, Kilmarnock.

He told the court: ``If police say I was on the video at 9.22pm I have to accept that. The camera doesn't lie.''

Mr Turnbull accused him of telling the truth only after he was trapped on the film but Mr McGuire replied he had only given the police an estimated time when he left the pub.

He told Mr Gordon Jackson QC, defending, he had not abducted Miss Julyan that night or killed her and said that he had taken a route away from where the girl was abducted and had hailed a taxi.

At one point Mr Turnbull asked Mr McGuire why he was smirking: ``Do you think there is something amusing about this?'' He replied: ``No. I sometimes smirk.''

A witness told the court earlier how Mr McGuire looked into her car near the scene about 9.30pm that night and appeared drunk and smirking.

The Advocate-depute told Mr McGuire that he had been given every conceivable chance to tell the truth and had told lies instead.

Mr McGuire raised his voice and talked rapidly when Mr Turnbull suggested: ``You are the one who killed Mhairi and you are talking like this hoping to hide and find a way out of it.'' He replied: ``It is you who is doing the hoping.''

During a judicial examination before a sheriff on January 29 after he was charged with murder, Mr McGuire replied: ``No comment'' to a number of questions asking if he had killed the teenager or about his defence.

Asked by Mr Turnbull why he had not taken the opportunity to explain why he had changed his story about his route home and the timing before the sheriff, McGuire said: ``Because I had already given four statements to the police.'' Strathclyde Police forensic scientist Martin Fairley, 34, said DNA-profiling tests had been carried out on blood samples taken from Mr McGuire and the dead girl.

These were compared with a spot of blood from the sleeve of a jacket found under the body. Mr Fairley said the blood matched the sample taken from Mr McGuire.

He also found profiles from another stain on the sleeve and one from a broken white shoelace. These stains revealed DNA matching both Miss Julyan and Mr McGuire. He said the DNA profile for Mr McGuire would be found in one in 8200 males.

Mrs Theresa Coulter, 56, of Samson Avenue, Kilmarnock, said she was a neighbour of the dead girl's family.

After 11pm on the Saturday night the girl vanished she heard two screams that were cut off coming from the area of the adjoining bus depot.

She said: ``I have often heard girls' screams and it is common when they are in a crowd. But these screams were isolated and I later told police.''

The trial continues.