The man accused of killing Vicky Hamilton told police that he had never met the schoolgirl, a trial has heard.
Jurors at the High Court in Dundee were shown part of a recorded interview with Peter Tobin which ended in him being charged with Vicky's abduction.
During the tape the court also heard Mr Tobin admit a knife found at his former home may have been his.
The 62-year-old denies abducting, sexually assaulting and murdering Vicky Hamilton in February 1991.
He has lodged a special defence of alibi, claiming he was in Portsmouth when she disappeared.
The lengthy interview with Peter Tobin was carried out by now-retired Det Con David Crookston and a colleague at a police office in the north of Scotland on 21 July last year.
Protested his innocence
It took place four months before Vicky's body was found buried in a garden in Margate, Kent.
It was put to the accused that her DNA was found on skin on a knife found in Mr Tobin's former home at 11 Robertson Avenue in Bathgate.
Det Con Crookston, who gave evidence in court, was seen asking: "A piece of that lassie, a 15-year-old lassie's DNA is on the knife. Can you explain that?"
Mr Tobin said that the knife might be his, but said he did not know how her DNA came to be on it.
Jurors were also shown officers confronting Mr Tobin with evidence that his young son's DNA was found on Vicky's purse.
Asked about that, he said: "I haven't got a clue - I can't explain it."
When it was put to him that he was responsible for Vicky's disappearance he replied: "No no no, not me."
He said: "I have never met her before ... I have never seen her."
He was also asked to cast his mind back to Sunday 10 February, 1991.
Mr Tobin told officers that if it had been the weekend, he would have had his child with him.
After being charged with Vicky's abduction he protested his innocence and said: "I was not here."
Det Con Crookston was the last witness for the Crown and Mr Mulholland formally closed the prosecution case shortly after lunch.
Later, defence QC Donald Findlay called several witnesses on behalf of the accused, starting with Elizabeth Brown.
Mrs Brown, 51, confirmed to the court that she had been working in a psychiatric hospital in 1991.
Asked whether she had ever encountered a man named Hugh Gunn, she replied: "He was admitted to the ward I was working at."
She told the court Vicky Hamilton's name had come up in conversation and said Mr Gunn told her he had "done away with that girl".
Mr Findlay put it to her: "Hugh Gunn volunteered to you that he had some part to play, or was in some way responsible for the death of Vicky Hamilton?"
Mrs Brown agreed, adding that she found him to be "quite intelligent" and "quite articulate".
The court also heard about a statement taken by police from a woman named Helen Maxwell, less than a month after Vicky's disappearance.
Jurors heard she told officers in March 1991 she remembered seeing a teenage girl walking away from the centre of Bathgate at around 1745 GMT on the day Vicky went missing.
The jury heard she told officers in a later statement in 2006 she was "sure" it was Vicky Hamilton.
Bin bags
The court also heard one of Vicky's neighbours claimed to police Vicky told her she had tried cannabis.
Mr Tobin is accused of abducting Vicky and taking her to Robertson Avenue in Bathgate, West Lothian, on 10 February, 1991, which the Crown alleges was then occupied by him.
The charge also alleges that there or elsewhere he drugged her, struggled with her, compressed her neck, indecently assaulted her and murdered her.
He is also accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
It is alleged that he concealed Vicky's body and removed and disposed of a number of items of her clothing and footwear.
He is also accused of cutting her body in two and wrapping it in coverings and bin bags.
Then, allegedly aware that police were conducting a missing person's inquiry, Mr Tobin is said to have put Vicky's purse under a portable cabin to mislead police into believing she had run away from home.
Mr Tobin denies all the charges against him and has lodged a special defence of alibi, saying that between 1700 GMT and midnight on 10 February, 1991, he was in the Portsmouth area and was thereafter travelling to Scotland, arriving in Edinburgh at 0630 GMT the following day.
The trial, before Lord Emslie, continues.
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