THE BOYFRIEND of a pregnant teenager who was found dead in her burnt out flat yesterday told a court they were "over the moon" to be expecting their first child and were happy together.

Nikitta Grender, 19, was eight-and-a-half months pregnant, when her body was found in the bedroom of the Broadmead Park flat she shared with her boyfriend, Ryan Mayes, on February 5 last year.

Mr Mayes' cousin, Carl Whant, 27, of no fixed abode, is on trial at Newport Crown Court charged with murder, child destruction, rape and arson. He denies all the charges.

Giving evidence yesterday ahead of the first anniversary of Miss Grender's death tomorrow, Mr Mayes said the couple moved to the Lliswerry flat in September 2010 and the move improved their relationship.

He said: "It just improved, it went better. We just had ourselves and may have had one or two friends each. We wanted each other and didn't want to go out drinking and finding other people. We just kept ourselves to ourselves and stayed strong. I was over the moon she was expecting a baby and she felt exactly the same."

Mr Mayes, 18, said the pregnancy had gone "perfect" and he was at almost every midwife appointment with Miss Grender.

The court heard the couple met around five years ago and were friends at first as they were both seeing other people, but they eventually got together when he was 13.

He said: "We had our ups and downs and there were other people involved. We were young. She was a good looking girl, people liked her and other people liked me. It was the thing with jealousy and splitting up."

Mr Mayes told the jury he and Miss Grender "settled down" when he was about 16 and moved in to a flat together in Corporation Road at the start of 2010.

After Miss Grender fell pregant they moved to the flat in Broadmead Park.

He said the couple would sometimes go out together, but also went out socialising with their own friends.

The court heard that on February 3 Mr Mayes had the day off and went shopping with Miss Grender, his mother, brother and uncle, before going back to his mother's house.

Miss Grender's friend Jenna Allman then picked her up to go out for the evening, before Whant picked Mr Mayes up. The couple then met up later in the car park of Matalan in Newport before leaving with their separate groups of friends.