A pub landlord was stabbed to death by his ex sister-in-law just seconds after making a 999 call to report she had threatened to kill him, a murder jury has heard.

The line to the emergency operator was still open when Matthew Bryant was knifed three times by Stephanie Langley in an “irrational but deliberate” attack outside the Hare and Hounds in Maidstone just after 6pm on September 11 last year.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the third and fatal wound from the large kitchen knife occurred when the 54-year-old mum forcefully plunged it 20cm deep into his chest. Without immediate surgery, the injury was unsurvivable.

But while considerable efforts were being made to save him, and even while she was under arrest, Langley was overheard repeatedly remarking she had killed him, she was glad she had done it and she was happy to go to jail.

The court heard she had also made threats to kill the landlord in messages she had sent to her son earlier that evening.

CCTV at the pub in Lower Boxley Road had captured their encounter including the moment Mr Bryant offered her the chance of speaking to police herself.

But instead she knocked the phone from his hand and then, as he went to retrieve it from the road, stabbed him.

Witnesses told police she had held the blade in “a dagger motion” above her head and yelled “I told you I would stab you.”

Despite previously being related by marriage, Mr Bryant’s first contact with Langley in more than 20 years was when she had turned up in May last year at the pub in Lower Boxley Road which he had run since 2015.

She did not know he was the landlord and he did not recognise her. But she later described the encounter as a “massive shock” which left her “almost uncontrollable.”

Langley, from East Farleigh, even told her son Cameron Langley-McColm that Mr Bryant was violent, had committed rape, and that she “hated him”, the court was told.

She became so angry during that May incident that Mr Langley-McColm had to make her leave the pub.

"I don't want to be told I'm going to be killed…”

But she returned, drunk and still angry, and shouting she was going to kill Mr Bryant, the court was told.

At the time, Langley was going through a number of personal and financial difficulties that put her under stress, the prosecution explained at the start of her trial on Tuesday, April 9.

Her mother was ill and had fallen out with Langley’s aunt, her son had been involved in a serious road accident, she faced a hefty bill for repairs to her Volvo car and was drinking more than usual.

But jurors were told by prosecutor Nina Ellin KC that by the day of the fatal stabbing Langley’s 52-year-old former brother-in-law had become “the focal point for her rage.”

CCTV captured her arriving at the Hare and Hounds at 5.53pm and being served a drink by Mr Bryant before he joined her at a table and could be seen talking.

The footage, played in court, then showed her trying to smash his phone while he was serving a customer, someone who Langley had allegedly told: “Get a drink while he is still alive.”

Just six minutes later, Mr Bryant’s wife Caroline - who did not know Langley - had asked her to leave and told her husband to phone police.

But as Langley got up, she allegedly told him: “You’re dead tonight.”

Having told another customer that the pub was “going to be shut”, she was seen walking back to her Volvo V70, which she had parked further along Lower Boxley Road.

Langley then drove to Station Road and, leaving the vehicle unlocked and with the hazard lights on outside Maidstone East train station, started her walk back to the pub.

By 6.05pm, Mr Bryant was outside and in the middle of his 999 call, which was also played in court.

He was heard calmly telling the operator that his ex sister-in-law had threatened to kill him, and how a few months earlier she had been at the pub “gunning for me.”

Mr Bryant added he had not reported that incident because he had not taken it seriously, but then said: “Today, she has come in intentionally, had a whiskey, I sat down and said ‘Hello’ and she said ‘I’m going to have you killed’.

“I don’t want to be told I’m going to be killed. I just sat down out of politeness but she said to me three times ‘I’m going to have you killed’. How can you respond to that?”

He also told the operator that Langley had accused him of being violent but he said there were no police records of any such allegations.

It was at this point in the conversation that Langley approached him. Mr Bryant was heard to say: “Hang on a tick, would you like to speak to her? I have got the police on the phone.”

But once the phone had been hit from his hand, the alleged attack ensued just out of view of the CCTV camera.

A few seconds later Mr Bryant was heard to tell the operator “I have just been stabbed” as people, including a customer and his wife, went to his aid.

The court heard that the time gap between the phone being knocked from his hand and the knife, which belonged to a block of knives in Langley’s kitchen at her home in Wilsons Lane, falling to the ground was 24 seconds.

In that time he had been stabbed twice to the back and once to his front torso.

A witness later described how Langley had lunged forward with the knife and pushed it into Mr Bryant’s right shoulder blade.

Having pulled the blade out, she shouted “I told you I would stab you” and then stabbed him in the chest, at which point he fell to the ground.

Pub customer Eddie Williams told police Langley had held the weapon over her head “in a dagger motion” before plunging it “with great force” into his torso.

She then let go of the blade, only to pull it out despite being ordered by Mr Williams not to do so. Langley also shouted: “I hope he is f***ing dead.”

Just over an hour earlier, she had sent messages to her son in which she had described herself as feeling down and “needing time out.”

"Get away from me, I want to stab him. I killed him. I don't care…”

But when he told her he would be playing pool that night at Mr Bryant’s pub, she responded with “Enjoy your pool with the w*****”, before telling him “I’ll see you there” and “Crazy mum remember.”

A few seconds later, Langley added: “I will also kill him.”

Passing motorists, paramedics and a firefighter were among those who tried to save Mr Bryant - and stop Langley from leaving - but he was eventually declared dead at the scene just before 6.50pm

Bodyworn video footage recorded by police showed her in a distressed state, shouting: “Get away from me, I want to stab him. I killed him. I don’t care. I want him dead...I’m just so happy. I hate him so much....I hope he dies.”

But family members who arrived to see her under arrest and sitting in a patrol car described her as looking “empty, vacant and barely recognisable”, the jury heard.

A half empty bottle of Bushmills whiskey was later found in a Tesco bag in the front passenger footwell of her Volvo.

Langley, who sustained a small cut to her hand, gave a “No comment” interview following her arrest.

Although the jury heard she has admitted a charge of possessing a knife, she denies both murder and the alternative offence of manslaughter.

But Ms Ellin said it was the prosecution case that Langley was guilty of murdering a man who had posed no threat to anyone.

She told the jury of six men and six women: “The Crown say that the words spoken by the defendant that you have heard and will hear during this trial demonstrate her intentions. They evidence what was in her mind at the time.

“She makes it clear time and time again that she wanted Mr Bryant dead. She said it before she stabbed him and she said it afterwards.

“Indeed, after it had happened, she said she was glad he was dead. Those words will be for you to assess but the Crown say they are significant when you consider what her intention was on that particular day.

“You will also consider how it was that a large kitchen knife from her own kitchen ended up in her hands at the scene... There was no need for her to take such a weapon to a public house in Maidstone.

“You may think that her possession of that knife and her expressed intention to stab or kill him show that she intended to do just that when she set off in her car on September 11 to see him.

“The manner of her blows and the force required to inflict those wounds will also be something you should have regard to when you consider her intentions.”

"There is no evidence he was behaving in a threatening manner on September 11 or at any stage prior to then…”

Referring to Langley’s assertions that Mr Bryant was violent and committed rape, Ms Ellin continued: “The Crown say even if she genuinely believed those allegations, there is no evidence that he was a threat to the defendant or anyone she knew at the time.

“There is no evidence he was behaving in a threatening manner on September 11 or at any stage prior to then.

“On the contrary, as you heard in his 999 call, he was the one under threat. He was the one who called police and sought their help in relation to a threat she made to him.

“She left his pub and then returned with the knife and deliberately stabbed him.”

Ms Ellin also told the jury that in deciding their verdict, they may want to consider whether the victim had “simply become the focal point” for Langley’s unhappiness and anger.

“It is the Crown's case that this defendant intended to kill or at least to cause really serious harm to Mr Bryant…”

“On September 11 she was down, fed up with various members of her family, she had issues with her car and financial problems. She had also been drinking,” said the prosecutor.

“She was annoyed that her son wanted to play pool at Mr Bryant’s pub and, in her mind, it was Mr Bryant who was at fault - he was the focus of her rage.

“So she took the largest kitchen knife from her home and she went to him and killed him. It was impulsive, it was irrational, but it was also deliberate and intentional.

“It is the Crown’s case that this defendant intended to kill or at least to cause really serious harm to Mr Bryant. The Crown say she is guilty of murder.”

The trial continues and is expected to last two to three weeks.