A fresh police recruit charged with murdering his 20-year-old girlfriend appeared in court yesterday for his third and final hearing as his defence team produced a witness who claimed to have seen the victim in another man’s company before her death.

The trial resumed from a postponement in December when the court ordered a reinvestigation of the case due to a lack of evidence.

Hong Kalydin, 28, was arrested and charged with murder accompanied by torture in October 2014, a week after the body of his girlfriend Song Davin was found floating on the Tonle Sap river.

Yesterday, the court heard a defence attorney witness who claimed to have seen the victim in a nightclub two days before she was found dead.

“On the night of October 5, I went to Mekong Nightclub with my sisters and saw five girls and one slim guy sitting inside. On October 7, a body was found on the river. People asked me and three other guys to take the body [out]. Then I saw it was one of the girls I had seen in the nightclub,” said witness You Maliki, who works as a fisherman.

When the judge asked if he could identify Kalydin, Maliki said, “No, it was not him who I saw in the nightclub.”

The prosecutor, judge and victim’s lawyer all found his account suspect and pressed him on the details.

Police stated that DNA testing revealed no semen on the victim’s body. Presiding judge Veng Huoth said the verdict would be announced on an unspecified date due to the complexity of the case.