Shohfah-El Israel is alleged to have killed 20-year-old Joy Morgan in December.
The University of Hertfordshire student has not been seen since Boxing Day and a body has never been recovered, Reading Crown Court has heard.
Ms Morgan and the defendant, of Cricklewood, north London, were members of the Israel United in Christ church in Ilford, east London – which, the trial heard, has rules including a ban on pre-marital sex and women not being alone in the company of men other than their husbands.
Israel, whose birth name is Ajibola Shogbamimu, has been described by the prosecution as a “thoroughly dishonest and manipulative” man who lied about Ms Morgan staying at his flat for two nights after a church celebration dinner.
He eventually told officers he dropped her off at her Hatfield accommodation on December 28, claiming he initially failed to tell the truth because he was worried about having broken church rules by having a woman who was not his wife staying alone with him.
Ms Morgan regularly took lifts to church with Israel and his wife and he said she was considered “100% part of the family”.
Giving evidence, he said he allowed her to stay at his flat because she was “upset” and that she revealed to him she was “leaving the church”.
He dismissed any suggestion he had sex with her, saying she had slept on a sofa bed and he “did not see her that way at…
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