A mother has been telling a murder trial about the daughter she lost more than 27 years ago.

Trainee nursery nurse Elizabeth McCabe was a shy girl who loved her family and children, said her mother Anne McCabe, 67 - standing just feet from the former Dundee taxi-driver accused of strangling her daughter.

Mrs McCabe also told the High Court in Edinburgh that her daughter was cautious when she went for occasional nights out and would never accept a lift from a stranger.

On trial is Vincent Simpson, 61, of 75 Longlands Way, Camberley, Surrey, who denies murdering Elizabeth McCabe in February 1980 by striking her on the head, seizing and compressing her neck.

Her body was found in Templeton Woods, Dundee, the day before her 21st birthday.

At the time Simpson was working as a taxi driver in Dundee and living in Belmont Street, Newtyle.

He claims that on the crucial night of February 10-11 he was either at home, ferrying fares around the Dundee area or at a local casino.

Wearing black and with her silver hair swept back, Mrs McCabe was the first witness in a trial which could last up to eight weeks.

She told advocate depute Alex Prentice QC, prosecuting, that she married in 1958 and that Elizabeth was the oldest of her four children - three girls and a boy.

The family lived in Lindhurst Avenue, in Lochee, a suburb about half an hour from the centre of Dundee by bus.

Elizabeth had left school aged 16 and started working straight away. "She went to be a nursery assistant," said Mrs McCabe.

"After a few years at the nursery she got the opportunity to do the nursery nurse training."

Mrs McCabe said: "Elizabeth was a very quiet, shy girl, very family orientated. She loved her family. She loved children as well."

Her daughter hardly went out, until about three or four months before she died.

"Sometimes she went on nights out with the ladies from the nursery, but she didn't go out a lot."

Mrs McCabe said sometimes her daughter would phone to say what time she would be back home, but not always. She never stayed out all night.

"Elizabeth was never a worry. I mean, I didn't worry about her going out you know. She didn't smoke or drink a lot or anything like that."

Mr Prentice asked if she was ever concerned her daughter didn't go out enough. "Oh yes. That is the natural thing, isn't it?" replied Mrs McCabe.

Mr Prentice asked how Elizabeth would get home. "Depending on the time, if the buses were running it would be a bus. But if the buses had stopped it would be a taxi, probably."

She added: "She wouldn't take a lift from anyone she didn't know. She would get a taxi, yes."

Simpson's defence team has also produced a list of 13 names, claiming that one or more of them were responsible for the murder.

The trial before Lord Kinclaven is expected to last for up to eight weeks.