A WISBECH factory worker alleged to have murdered his neighbour and hid her body under a mattress told friends she was pregnant, a court heard.

Tomas Acas is said to have made the revelation to colleague Ingrida Batakiene in a phonecall where they discussed the whereabouts of their co-worker Jolanta Dumciuviene.

Giving evidence at Cambridge Crown Court yesterday, Ms Batakiene said Acas told her he visited the Lithuanian’s Milner Road address to ask for a thermometer because he was ill.

The 26-year-old, who denies murder, said he could not find her but went on to say she was expecting a child, Ms Batakiene said.

The witness added: “I didn’t believe this but he assured me it was true.”

Earlier Ms Batakiene said she had received a “strange” text message from the Wisbech murder victim on Thursday, May 6 last year which said: “I will come back on Sunday.”

She had last seen Mrs Dumciuviene alive on Monday, May 3 when they worked together at Wisbech’s Del Monte canning factory.

They spoke over the phone again a day later, when Mrs Dumciuviene is said to have invited her colleague to a barbeque.

However she did not show for work on Friday, May 7, which prompted Ms Batakiene to go round to her Milner Road address to see where she was.

“We walked round to the window and called ‘Jolanta, Jolanta’, but no one answered,” she said.

She later heard her friend and colleague was dead.

Jurors also saw CCTV footage of Acas in Wisbech town centre on Tuesday, May 4.

Police say the defendant, who is also Lithuanian, tried to make a cash machine withdrawal at 7.51pm that day using Mrs Dumciuviene’s bank card.

The trial continues.