A prostitute killer denied smothering his daughter to death.

Phyllis Porter, aged 11, was found in bed, face down on a pillow, in November, 1996 but an inquest failed to unravel the mystery of how she died.

Porter, aged 43, a practising Mormon, is in the dock at Manchester Crown Court charged with murdering Phyllis.

Interviews between the defendant and detectives were read out in court on Wednesday, at the close of the prosecution's case.

Porter was asked if he wanted to comment on the pathologist's opinion that his daughter was probably killed by being smothered.

Porter said: "No, not at the moment." In a later interview he denied smothering his daughter and said that on the morning of her death he had gone about his normal routine.

Later on he became agitated and the interview ended. David Steer, QC, prosecuting, said: "He said he knew he was a bit slow and that he didn't catch on to things like everyone else." Porter also said that he had a good relationship with Phyllis.

Earlier in the trial, Mr Steer told the jury: "It is the Crown's case that the defendant, by murdering Carly Bateman in 2001, demonstrated his propensity to kill either a very young girl, or a young woman with a youthful appearance."

He said that on the day of Phyllis's death, Porter entered her bedroom at their home in Kitt Green Road, Marsh Green, Wigan and suffocated her on a pillow.

The inquest into Phyllis Porter's death recorded an open verdict in 1998.

But her body was exhumed in 2003 when the case was reopened, and the pathologist said there was a "sinister element" to it. He said suffocation on the pillow was the likely cause of death and that an unexpected death of natural causes in a healthy young girl was "extremely unlikely".

Carly Bateman, who worked as a prostitute to feed her drug habit, was found naked in an alleyway off Crawford Avenue, Bolton, in the early hours of Sunday, November 11, 2001. She had been strangled.

The case for the defence is expected to start today.

Proceeding