A ex-binman accused of killing his ex-girlfriend after finding out she was pregnant has denied murdering her.

Ben Blakeley, 22, said he didn't intend to kill 17-year-old Jayden Parkinson or cause her "really serious bodily harm", but he admitted killing the teenager.

Giving evidence at Oxford Crown Court, Blakely told jurors: "I didn't mean to hurt Jayden. I thought she was joking..."

The court heard Blakely was a controlling person, and had threatened to post intimate naked photographs and videos of Jayden on Facebook after their split, hoping she would kill herself.

Jayden, formerly of Folkestone, was last seen alive with Blakeley on the afternoon of December 3 last year in Didcot, Oxfordshire having met up to discuss her pregnancy.

When she had broken the news to Blakeley a day earlier he had become angry and denied he was the father, the court was told.

On December 19 her body was recovered from the grave of Blakeley's uncle, Alan Kennedy, at All Saints' churchyard in Didcot.

In the graveyard Blakeley and his co-accused, a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, are accused of burying Jayden's body in the grave of Mr Kennedy, who died in 2006.

Blakeley, of Christchurch Road, Reading, Berkshire, has denied murdering Jayden but has admitted her manslaughter and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The youth has also pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice but denies a charge of preventing a lawful burial.

A post-mortem revealed the cause of death as pressure to the neck.

She also had bruising to her face and scalp, which suggested it might have been caused by a fist or foot.

Blakely told the court how his father used to beat him up and kick him out of the house naked when he was younger.

He recalled how on one occasion he swung a boot at his face when he was five or six.