Inquests have been opened into a series of deaths in a new year of tragedies.

A father and son were killed in a car crash on New Year's Eve at Hothfield, Ashford, and a tree surgeon fell off a tree on a few miles away in Charing three days later.

Coroner's officer David Lewis formally reported the deaths to coroner Rachel Redman as part of a series of inquest openings at Ashford Magistrates Court.

John Hocking, 76, and his son Chris, 50, died after their Peugeot 306 was in collision with a Volkswagen Transporter van just outside the Esso Garage on the A20 at Hothfield.

A post mortem examination confirmed both had died from multiple injuries.

Mr Hocking Sr, a widower, lived nearby in the village's Maidstone Road and Mr Hocking Jr, a single man, lived at New Rents, Ashford.

Mr Hocking Sr was a former Metropolitan Police officer who in his last years built up a reputation as a talented wildlife photographer and a volunteer for the Tunbridge Wells-based animal charity The Fox Project.

Shaun Chapman, 44, fell off a tree he was working on in a freak accident at Bowl Road, Charing.

Mr Lewis said the Kent Air Ambulance helicopter had been called in but he was pronounced dead the the scene.

He died from multiple injuries.

Mr Chapman, a divorcee, had been qualified as a tree surgeon for two decades.

Dates for full hearings on the two tragedies, with witness evidence, are due to be fixed.