A nightclub owner has denied ever knowing South African Donavan Van Lill at the trial into his murder.

Mike Rosser, who owns Karma, was giving evidence at Bristol Crown Court where Stanton St Quintin swimming instructor Martin Sugden is charged with murdering Mr Van Lill, 29.

Crown Prosecution QC Christopher Parker asked Mr Rosser if he knew or had had a dispute with Mr Van Lill.

Mr Rosser denied ever meeting him and said: “It’s very difficult to have a dispute with a guy you don’t know.”

He also said that seeing Sugden at Bristol Crown Court was was the first time in his life he had ever seen him in person.

Under cross examination from defence counsel Ignatius Hughes QC, Mr Rosser confirmed he owned a Bentley GT and a villa in the Costa Del Sol.

He denied associating with people involved in organised crime but confirmed that he was in a sexual relationship with former Olympiad leisure centre employee Sam Cook, who now lives in Norfolk and works for the Babestation TV channel.

He also confirmed that she had a tattoo of the word Karma in what Mr Hughes described as a ‘very private place’.

Later the court heard from PC Kevin Robert who had led the investigation into determining if Mr Van Lill had been detected elsewhere in the UK following his disappearance last year.

He told the court inquires had been made with all UK police forces, Interpol, financial institutions, hospitals, dental services, the Jobcentre, supermarket loyalty card companies and eBay among others, none of which had any record of activity by Mr Van Lill.

PC Robert also said officers had followed up three recorded sightings of Mr Van Lill but none had proved positive.

The court heard that a woman, who was believed to be a prostitute living in Basildon, had reported to the Facebook page appealing for Mr Van Lill’s discovery, that she had had sex with a man with a dragon tattoo on his chest and who spoke with what she said was an Australian accent.

But Detective Sergeant Nick Shorten told the court that police did not follow up that information because the man’s accent was reported to be Australian not South African.

Although Mr Van Lill had a dragon tattoo they were not uncommon, Mr Van Lill had no known association with Basildon and that by the time the information was received police were already satisfied that Mr Van Lill was no longer alive.

DS Shorten also confirmed that the lime powder discovered at Sugden’s Clanville Bar home was hydraulic lime, sometimes used in the construction of fish tanks. He said: “It is not effective for the purposes of accelerating decomposition.”

The trial continues