THE landlord being held on suspicion of the murder of Joanna Yeates knew her boyfriend was away and had a key to her flat, neighbours said last night.

Retired public school teacher Chris Jefferies, 65, was arrested yesterday at his flat directly above the basement Victorian property he rented to the 25-year-old landscape architect and her boyfriend Greg Reardon, 27.

Neighbours said yesterday he borrowed jump leads to help Mr Reardon start his car so he could drive to stay with his brother in Sheffield on the night Miss Yeates' disappeared.

Miss Yeates, who grew up in Ampfield, near Romsey, had lived in the same block of flats as Mr Jefferies since October.

The bachelor was today facing a second day of police interrogation.

His arrest came just 24 hours after he claimed he had watched as three people left Miss Yeates' flat in Canynge Road, in the upmarket area of Clifton, Bristol, on the night she vanished.

Mr Jefferies later denied he had told police he saw Miss Yeates leaving with two unidentified people.

Neighbours and former pupils yesterday painted a picture of Mr Jefferies an eccentric loner, who had an unconventional dress and walked and talked strangely, although was a ''pillar of society'' with a keen interest in local politics and community matters.

He was a respected former teacher at prestigious private school Clifton College, situated yards from his large flat.

Mr Jefferies, originally from Grimsby, taught at the college from the late 1960s onwards, rising to the position of head of English, before taking early retirement in 2001.