A lorry driver deliberately picked two young mothers from the fringes of society to murder, disposing of their bodies so that they have never been found, a court heard today.

Derek Brown, 47, chose the two "soft targets" — an illegal immigrant and a prostitute — believing that the police would not mount a proper investigation to find them and that they would not be reported missing, the Old Bailey was told.

He was wrong, the court was told, and a massive hunt was undertaken. Mr Brown was arrested in October last year, despite the women's bodies not having been found.

The defendant, described as a loner who used the services of prostitutes, sat impassively in the dock as a jury of five women and seven men was told that Bonnie Barrett, 24 and Xiao-Mei Guo, 29, disappeared "off the face of the earth" between August and October last year.

Brian Altman, QC, for the prosecution, said: "On two separate occasions, one in August and one in September last year, two young women disappeared from East London and off the face of the earth.

"Evidence of both a direct and circumstantial nature links their disapearance with this defendant who, say the prosecution, lured each woman back to his flat in Rotherhithe, southeast London, where, following a murderous attack on each, carried out by him on two separate and distinct occasions, he disposed of their bodies.

"Not only has each not been seen since or heard from again, neither woman's body has been recovered despite a massive police investigation into their disappearances."

That the women's bodies remained undiscovered did not prohibit to a successful prosecution of their murders. "After all, the better and more skillful the defendant is at concealing what he has done should not bar him from detection and conviction," he said.

Describing the victims Mr Altman said: "Both lived on the edge of society and were soft targets for a killer who thought neither woman would be missed or whose disappearance would trigger a massive police investigation."

Mrs Guo, a mother of two sons, came to England with her husband in 2006, borrowing money from relatives to pay a Snakehead gang to get here, it was said. and they worked selling counterfeit DVD's in Whitechapel market to pay back the loans.

They lived together in a shared, rented flat and were happily married. She would telephone her two children, aged 11 and 12 two, or three times a week in China, where they were cared for by relatives.

Mrs Guo disappeared on August 29, 2007, after going to work. Her husband was in prison at the time for selling fake DVD's.

Mr Altman said: "On that day she left home for the market where as usual she sold DVD's and where you will see the defendant met her and spoke to her and they left the market together." No one had seen or heard from her since.

The other alleged victim, Ms Barrett, the mother of a six-year-old boy, disappeared on September 18 the same year. The court was told that she had a crack-cocaine habit and her mother looked after her son, but that she kept in close contact with both, and with a nephew who was terminally ill.

She left her flat, which she shared with a friend, in the early evening and he had not heard from her since.

Mr Brown, who worked a night shift delivering papers and magazines to retailers, denies murdering Ms Guo between August 29 and October 6, 2007, and Ms Barrett between September18 and October 6, 2007, when he was arrested.

The trial, expected to last four weeks, continues.

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