Murdered Annalise Johnstone was disliked by members of her Traveller community because she was gay, a jury learned yesterday.

It emerged that she even kept details of her relationship with another woman private from family members.

Her brother Jordan Johnstone – who is accused with his partner Angela Newlands of murdering the 22-year-old – revealed that Annalise had a secret girlfriend in an interview with police.

He told detectives: “She’s quite private about some things and open about others.

“She was private about who her girlfriend was.”

He said his sister been on the phone to her girlfriend on the Tuesday before she died and was “really down” when the call ended.

He said: “I think she must have been feeling low because of issues with her girlfriend.

“I knew it was her girlfriend due to the way she was speaking to her.

“I knew she was feeling down, then she started shouting calling her girlfriend a bitch.”

When Angela Newlands was questioned by police about where Annalise might be she suggested that the missing woman “could possibly be at her girlfriend’s”.

But she added: “She won’t be at the caravan park because certain people don’t like her going there because she’s gay.”

Annalise’s estranged father Gordon Johnstone, 44, earlier admitted he had parted from his daughter after rows about her decision to come out as a lesbian.

He told the jury: “We left on an argument. That’s haunted me to this day.”

Johnstone, 25, and Newlands, 28, both deny stabbing Annalise in the neck at a witch memorial near Dunning in Perthshire on 10 or 11 May last year.

They also deny attempting to defeat the ends of justice by cleaning their car to remove evidence and making a false report that Annalise was missing to hide their guilt.

On the fourth day of their trial the jury heard of Johnstone’s bizarre reaction to being told his sister’s body had been found.

He started shaking uncontrollably, said: “My head is f***ed!” then banged his head off the table in the interview room at Dundee divisional police headquarters, detectives said.

The builder was being interviewed as a potential witness after he called police in the early hours of the morning to report his sister missing.

Cops did not immediately connect the missing person report with the discovery of a young woman’s body dumped at the side of a country road in Perthshire.

It was only after Johnstone gave officers a detailed description of his sister’s tattoos and piercings they positively identified the remains as the missing 22-year-old.

The jury at the High Court in Livingston was told that Annalise had bright red hair, a tongue piercing, a stud below her bottom lip, distinctive tattoos reading ‘Lady’ and ‘Papa’ on her chest and the names ‘Nadia, Gran, Mum and Alicia’ tattooed on her arm.

DC Karen Jamieson, 42, said she interviewed Johnstone at Dundee Police Headquarters after the phone call saying he was “worried sick” about his sister.

She said Johnstone had asked her to call his granny during the interview. “I said it wasn’t appropriate because there were specialist officers with his grandmother disclosing news of Annalise’s death

“Prior to that he’d been calm. On being told this information his demeanour completely changed.

“He placed his head in his hands and began to uncontrollably shake and make statements. He said ‘My head is f***ed!’”

DC Helen Ireland, 37, said she had earlier gone looking for Johnstone at an address he had lived in in Auchterarder, Perthshire, with other officers.

Firearms officers forced entry because they could see possible signs of a disturbance inside but found the house empty.

She then went with a colleague to an address in Inchture, near Dundee, where Johnstone had been traced by uniformed officers. She said he “willingly” agreed to accompany them to Police HQ.

In a lengthy interview Johnstone told detectives he had gone to see Annalise in Ayrshire after Easter, when the house he shared with his co-accused was flooded.

He said: “Annalise was sitting on our sister’s step greeting. I asked what was wrong and she said she’d just been told she couldn't have children.

“As she was upset I gave her a cuddle to comfort her. After that used to see Annalise.

“She was open to me about having depression and being bipolar. I know this because she showed me her medication and I asked what it was for.”

Detective Constable Andrew Howe, 40, who conducted the lengthy interview with Johnstone said the accused told him he had offered to let Annalise stay with him and Newlands at Inchture, near Dundee because she could ‘chill out’ and have her own room.

During their drive north, he said said Annalise made a call was asking to borrow £20 or £30 from a man she called ‘papa’ who volunteered at a Nazarene church with her.

He said: “I heard him say he wasn't going to give her any money because thought she was going to buy drugs.”

When Annalise said she wanted to go home, Johnstone told her that he didn't have enough fuel to get to Ardrossan.  He said Annalise was in a huff.  

He told detectives: “I did a U-turn said I would take her to uncle Walter’s because I knew he smoked cannabis and he’d be able to sort her out with some cannabis.

“I stopped on the road at the entrance to the street and let out Annalise. I said goodbye to her and gave her a cuddle.

“I waited until I saw her at Walter’s block. She pressed a buzzer and waited for her to go into the block. I don't know the time but it was about 10pm and beginning to get dark.

“When I dropped Annalise off I asked her to give me a phone when she got back to Ardrossan. I drove back to Inchture. I was shattered and just wanted to get back home.

“That was the last time I saw her.”

The following day he said he went back to Walter’s to see if Annalise was there.

“I couldn't get into the block and there was no answer to the buzzer. Walter’s van and Jeep weren’t parked outside.”

At that point he said, he used a fellow Traveller’s phone to dial 101 to report Annalise missing.

DC Howe said Johnstone had reacted oddly when he learned his description of Annalise’s tattoo had helped police identify her.

He said: “He became upset and placed his head and his hands. He did bang his head off the table we were sitting at at the time.

“He said: ‘Don't tell me she’s been raped’. He said he would kill Walter, indicating that he believed he (Walter) was responsible for it.”

Asked if he could be medically examined for any injuries or samples Johnstone told the detectives he would do anything to help their inquiry.  DC Howe said that was normal procedure, adding: “Everyone was aware he was the last person to see her alive.”

He said he saw scratches to the back of Johnstone’s neck while a doctor was examining him. He told the jury: “There were three linear marks at the base of the neck. He said it was the result of a haircut the previous day.”

Both co-accused suggested that Annalise had a drugs habit and had been taking cannabis, valium amphetamines, methadone and heroin.

DC Beverley Simon, 25, who interviewed Newlands said the accused looked “genuinely shocked” when she told her Annalise had been found dead.

The trial continues