Man pleads not guilty to cold case murder

A man accused of the cold case killing of a woman found in bushland near Newcastle more than three decades ago has pleaded not guilty to her murder in a Sydney court.

Rodney Lawrence, 65, appeared via videolink at the NSW Supreme Court on Friday charged over the stabbing death of Elizabeth Dixon, 31, whose body was discovered in her car in bushland at Ashtonfield in April 1982.

As well as pleading not guilty to murder, Lawrence pleaded not guilty to an alternative charge that another person killed Ms Dixon and he helped that person after the fact.

He is scheduled to go on trial in the Supreme Court at Newcastle in late November.