<div><p>An Indian man abducted, raped and murdered a 17-year-old girl before fleeing to his home country, a court heard today. </p><p>There was "clear and compelling" evidence that Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, 40, abducted Hannah Foster a short distance from her home in Southampton before midnight on Friday March 14 2003 and murdered her after a sexual attack, Winchester crown court was told.</p><p>The A-level student, who was said to be "highly intelligent" and planned to go to medical school, called 999 for help after being snatched by her alleged killer but was unable to speak and the call was automatically disconnected, the court heard.</p><p>Opening the prosecution's case, Nicholas Haggan QC, said Hannah called the emergency services in the hope that police would hear her conversation with the accused, a former sandwich delivery driver. A system to prevent accidentally dialled calls clogging up the telephone system discarded the teenager's call.</p><p>Recordings of the call reveal that she was in a moving vehicle, Haggan said. "In that vehicle with her was a man. That man was speaking in a heavily accented voice. Hannah probably hoped that the operator would listen to the conversation taking place between the man and her and that the operator would be able to work out that she was being held against her will." </p><p>On Saturday March 15 her parents, Trevor and Hilary Foster, reported their daughter missing. Mrs Foster, growing increasingly worried about her daughter's whereabouts, texted Hannah at 5.30am and tried to call her at 6.30am. She received no response. </p><p>The same morning, Kohli called a friend in tears asking for money for a plane ticket back to India where, he said, his mother was seriously ill. The friend refused to help, the court heard. </p><p>The next day, Hannah's body was found fully clothed beneath a hedgerow in Allington Lane, on the outskirts of Southampton. She had been raped and strangled, said Haggan."It was obvious the motive of Hannah's abduction was sexual and she had been raped and murdered." The teenager's handbag and mobile were later found dumped in a public glass recycling bin in Portsmouth.</p><p>Kohli, an Indian national who was living in the UK at the time of the killing, travelled from Southampton to Heathrow on Tuesday March 18 where he caught a flight to India. After a Crimewatch appeal, he was located and arrested by Indian police in July 2004. He was extradited to the UK on July 28 2007. </p><p>A DNA sample taken from the defendant on his return to Britain matched DNA recovered from Hannah's body and the van used by Kohli for his job as a sandwich delivery driver, said Haggan. "There was a one in one billion match probability. That DNA was the final piece in the jigsaw. The case against the defendant is now clear and compelling," he said.</p><p>Kohli denies charges of murder, rape, kidnapping and false imprisonment. The trial continues.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=34973976&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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