Talk of river plunge 'overheard'

Robert Gill's body was discovered by a team of police divers

The girlfriend of one of three youths accused of murdering a student has told how she overheard a conversation about him pushing a boy in the river.

Sean Downes, 18, Thomas Luddington, 17, and a boy, 16, deny murdering Robert Gill by pushing him into the Great River Ouse on 27 December, last year.

Lauren Rinaldi said Mr Luddington told her a friend had first held Mr Gill over a bridge before pushing him in.

Miss Rinaldi, 19, was giving evidence at a trial in Luton Crown Court.

Miss Rinaldi, from Kempston, told the jury she had met Mr Luddington, of Dunham Close, Bedford, when she was 15 and they had had an on-and-off relationship.

'Upset and angry'

She said she was in a nightclub called New York New York on Boxing Day night and arranged over the phone to meet him outside where they argued and she ended up in tears.

Miss Rinaldi described him that night as being "upset and angry."

She said she walked to the flat in Dunham Close where he was staying.

Eventually, she said he turned up there and then Mr Downes, of Acacia Road, Bedford, and the 16-year-old arrived.

She said at one point she heard someone talking in a raised voice about a boy being pushed into the river.

Asked to describe what the mood was like between the three she replied "angry"

'Pushed in river'

Later she said she asked him what had happened earlier.

"He said Sean Downes had him over a bridge and then Tom pushed him in the river," said Miss Rinaldi.

A couple of days later she said she had another conversation with Mr Luddington about what had happened on the bridge.

She said he gave her the same account.

"I asked him how the boy was and he said: 'Fine, he came to the surface', he kept saying the boy was fine, he came to the surface," she said.

The case continues.