A man accused of murdering a debt collector spent more than £100 on cocaine during three drug transactions - on the day the mother-of-three vanished, a court has heard.

Geoffrey Hutton, 38, of Basildon denies murdering 49-year-old Tina Cantello between June 7 and June 10 this year. She died as a result of 30 stab wounds to her left chest and neck.

Ms Cantello, who worked for Provident Financial Group, left home at 5pm on June 8 and had been due to return at 7.30pm, but never arrived and was later reported missing to the police.

Giving evidence during the second day of the trial on Tuesday at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Taaron Burt said he had known Hutton - or "deaf Geoff" - for around a year before the incident.

He revealed he would help Hutton get cocaine, but denied being his dealer, adding that he would see him on a "day-to-day basis" to help him buy £20-£30 of the drug, until personal issues forced him to close himself off for a few months.

Mr Burt said on June 8 before 5.30pm, he had met with Hutton on two separate occasions to obtain a £20 wrap of cocaine each time - seeing them drive to the Four Seasons pub to collect it.

He told the court he heard from Hutton again at around 6pm, saying he wanted a tick for cocaine - a take now pay later arrangement - which Mr Burt said he knew would not be possible because the people providing the drugs "did not like him".

Under questioning from the prosecution counsel, Simon Spence, Mr Burt revealed Hutton then said he was meeting up with a friend called Neil to get some money off him.

Following the earlier two £20 transactions for cocaine, he said Hutton proceeded to spend another £60-£70 on the drug, before telling Mr Burt he was in a rush and that he "had to go".

Describing Hutton on the third meeting, he said: "He was drenched, he looked like he had just stood in the shower ... it looked like water ... it looked like he had sat in a bath with all his clothes on."

He said it was not sweat because he "would've been able to smell BO" and confirmed that Hutton was wearing the same clothes he had seen him in earlier that day.

During questioning from defence counsel Satyanand Beharrylal, the court heard how Mr Burt had described Hutton to the police as "timid", that he had never seen him angry and that he "seemed harmless".

Ms Cantello had prearranged with Hutton to collect payment for a loan from him, and after 5.30pm arrived at his home on Derby Close - which is where her largely naked body was later discovered in a bedroom by police on June 9.

Police constable Benjamin Freeman, who attended the incident, described how Hutton was wearing bloodstained clothes, had a number of cuts on his arms and had nothing on his feet.

He said his feet were "covered in dirt", there was blood on the bottom of them and grass in between his toes, and that his shorts smelt of urine.

Pc Freeman also recalled how Hutton told the officers that a man had arrived with the woman and killed her.

The court, including the jury of eight women and four men, were also shown body-worn camera footage from another officer at the scene.

Within the 30-minute clip, Hutton, who was sat on the floor in handcuffs, could be heard telling the officers that "he (the other man) dragged her halfway up the stairs" before making him do the rest of it, and that the man "knew everything" about him.

The trial continues.