THE man accused of murdering Miss Marion Ross, 51, admitted yesterday that he was in her house 24 hours before her death.

Mr David Asbury, 21, told the High Court in Glasgow his car broke down 100 yards from her home in Irvine Road, Kilmarnock.

He knew Miss Ross from the time he worked with his grandfather's building company on an extension at her home, and said she had allowed him to use her phone.

He claimed that after he picked up the phone he realised his car might not have broken down because of mechanical failure, but because it needed petrol and put down the phone.

Mr Asbury, of Castle Drive, Kilbirnie, denies murdering Miss Ross between January 6 and 8 this year by stabbing her in the throat and eye with a pair of scissors and a knife. He also denies robbing her of a tin containing money.

The court has heard his fingerprint was discovered on a gift tag on a Christmas present said to have been found in Miss Ross's living room. It has also been alleged a tin box containing #2240 said to have been found in Mr Asbury's bedroom bore both his and Miss Ross's fingerprint.

Asked to explain how his print was found on the gift tag, Mr Asbury said the Christmas present had been lying near the phone with some books, and he had moved them aside.

He told the court the tin box was his and had been in his home for three years.

Some of the cash, it was revealed, had been put into #100 bundles in the same ''peculiar'' way used by Miss Ross when she worked in a bank. He said his grandfather taught him to bundle up money in the same way.

The trial continues.