Murdered teenager Rhiana Moore's mother spoke to the man now accused of killing her during the search for her missing daughter.

Juliann Moore told Supreme Court how Ze Selassie claimed in a phone call that Rhiana confided to him that she'd been sexually molested by two men.

The 14-year-old was around seven months pregnant when her half-naked body was discovered in a mangrove swamp in Hamilton Parish on May 31 2008. She'd been stabbed at least 18 times.

Prosecutors say prolific text messages and telephone calls between the schoolgirl and Selassie, 33, showed they were involved in a secret relationship. Her mother did not know about the relationship or the pregnancy.

Mrs. Moore frequently broke down in tears yesterday as she gave evidence about her daughter going missing after attending a youth club on Friday May 30 and her frantic search for her afterwards.

Prosecutors say Selassie's movements and behaviour on Friday May 30 should lead the jury to conclude that he's responsible for the killing "on or about" that date.

He is said to have gone to Hamilton around 7.15 am the next morning to get mud washed off his car, then gone to Tynes Bay Incinerator to dump a trash bag.

Mrs. Moore described her daughter who was known to her family as "Rhi" as a bright girl, who was an honours student at Whitney Institute and then CedarBridge Academy.

She said Rhiana was "very shy until you got to know her. Very quiet, very pleasant, very sweet, did her chores when I asked. Very respectful to people."

Mrs. Moore, a bank worker, also explained that she and Rhiana's father, Rohan Moore, divorced in the year 2000 after six years together.

She told the jury she'd met Ze Selassie before, a couple of years before her daughter's death, as he was dating the sister of one of Rhiana's friends.

On that occasion, she said, Selassie and the friend's sister took Rhiana out for a drive.

"I had a conversation with all of them. I had never met him before so I had to make sure. I don't want my daughter out with (just) anybody, so I had to get to know who this person was and I got comfortable with it in the end," she explained.

On the night of Friday May 30 2008, she dropped her daughter off at the Radnor Road Christian Fellowship youth group and never saw her alive again.

She explained that Rhiana was always brought home by one of the youth leaders, mainly Jenna Bean.

Tearfully recalling her last conversation with her daughter, Mrs. Moore told the court: "I just said to her 'Jenna's bringing you home, right?' And she said 'yes mommy, yes.' And I watched her walk in the door."

Mrs. Bean told the court on Wednesday that Rhiana only stayed at the youth group briefly before leaving claiming her aunt was picking her up to take her to a sleepover.

When Mrs. Moore realised later that night that her daughter had not returned home, she began ringing around to try to locate her.

The next morning she notified the Police. Then she headed into town to Digicel to obtain a list of numbers that Rhiana called from her cell phone the night before, to see who she'd been in contact with prior to going missing. Mrs. Moore explained that she handed the list of numbers over to the Police and kept a copy herself.

She and family members dialled the most recently-called number on the list which connected them to Ze Selassie's voicemail.

She then looked Selassie up on an Internet chat site that Rhiana had an account with and found Selassie's photograph. She also tried to contact him by calling Rhiana's friend's sister, who was his girlfriend.

Selassie himself later called Mrs. Moore back on her landline at her home in Devonshire and asked why she thought her daughter was with him.

According to Mrs. Moore, Selassie also said the last time Rhiana texted him was the week before, and she only texted him when she had a problem.

Rhiana's mother then inquired what her daughter had been texting him about. She said that in reply, Selassie mentioned the names "Javon Smith" and "Wayne" and something about them having "molested" Rhiana when she was younger.

"Something about a Wayne and about a Javon Smith had sex with her," she elaborated.

Selassie went on to call her back a second time that morning, but Mrs. Moore said she could not remember the conversation.

Later that morning, she found out that her daughter had been found dead.

Quizzed by prosecutor Michael McColm, Mrs. Moore confirmed she noticed about six weeks before her daughter's death that she was gaining weight, and asked her if she was having sex. "She said 'no Mommy, no, if I was I would tell you." Mrs. Moore said she replied "very good" and advised Rhiana to continue focusing on school.

In answer to questions from defence lawyer John Perry QC, she disagreed with the suggestion that her daughter was "very secretive," and "very withdrawn" with a change in her behaviour noticeable since her parents divorced.

Mrs. Moore insisted that her daughter was a happy child, albeit one who was very quiet. She agreed with Mr. Perry that Rhiana told her about crushes on boys, explaining "she would say 'crush' but that's all it was."

She confirmed that she did not know her daughter was pregnant, stating that it was not physically apparent and that her own pregnancy with Rhiana had not been noticeable at that stage.