THE jury in the Kirsty Grabham murder trial was told how a visitor to her flat spotted a rug days before she was allegedly killed — a rug which had later disappeared.

Paul Edwards gave evidence as the prosecution case against 26- year-old Paul Grabham entered its final stages at Swansea Crown Court.

Mr Edwards told the jury he had visited Mrs Grabham at her home in the city's Mount Pleasant area on two occasions.

The last time he was there was March 26 last year — two days before she was allegedly killed by her husband.

Asked by prosecutor Greg Taylor QC about the Grabhams' top-floor flat in Rosehill Terrace, Mr Edwards recalled seeing a rug in the middle of the lounge's laminated floor.

Last week, the jury was told a black rug was missing from the middle of the floor when a photographer friend of the couple's went to the flat on March 31.

Earlier in the case, the court also heard evidence from a forensic scientist who discovered blood from the deceased around the edges of the lounge — but not in the middle.

The scientist said a possible explanation for this was that something had been covering the middle of the floor — something that had since been removed.

Yesterday, Mr Edwards was not asked why he had visited Mrs Grabham on March 26.

But a later witness, Detective Constable Neil Jones, told the court: "We believe he was there for her services."

Replying to questions by the judge, the detective also revealed Mrs Grabham had had "another client" at the flat that day, but this person was not named in court.

Paul Grabham, who denies murder, is alleged to have killed his wife at their home in the early hours of March 28 after they got home separately from a night out at Play nightclub in the city centre.

According to the prosecution, he then dumped her body in a suitcase on an M4 embankment near Cefn Cribwr, west of Bridgend, where it was found on April 6.

The couple worked in the sex industry as prostitutes and had got married in 2008 after meeting at a brothel.

Giving evidence on day 11 of the case, Sergeant Desmond Trick told the court how he spent six hours taking a long witness statement from the defendant on April 3.

When arrested a short time later on suspicion of murder, Grabham replied: "How? Why? What?"

The court heard that between April 3 and April 7 detectives conducted no fewer than 16 interviews with Grabham, but to all questions he replied: "No comment."

Another witness yesterday was Brian Fisher, an engineer with expertise in the analysis of cell phone data.

During his evidence, he was asked about calls made by Grabham's mobile between 10.23am and 10.31am on March 31. Mr Fisher said these had involved masts or aerials in the Bridgend area, serving an area west of the A4061 and its junction with the M4.

Some of these calls had used a mast that was the "best server" for sections of the lane passing under the motorway at the site where the body was found.

But Mr Fisher said his findings did not "emphatically" prove that Grabham's phone was "at the body site" at the time it made these calls.

For example, he could not discount the possibility the phone was being used in a car that was travelling from Bridgend in the direction of Port Talbot.

During yesterday's prosecution evidence, it also emerged that, on the M4, the CCTV camera nearest to where the body was dumped was half a mile away in the direction of Bridgend.

But last March it was not working, having been out of action since February.

There was no sitting of the court today and Grabham was expected to be called to the witness box to give evidence when the defence case gets underway tomorrow.

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