The best friend of a man allegedly murdered during a violent confrontation outside a village pub has denied they had been "looking for a fight".

Jurors heard that Leigh Bean had driven Adam Pritchard to the Queen's Head in Boughton-under-Blean on the night he was fatally stabbed.

Giving evidence at Canterbury Crown Court last week, Mr Bean said his friend had told him he wanted to "have a beer" with another man at the pub - Craig Brabon - and was in a happy mood chatting about "daily life" as they made the short journey in Mr Pritchard's Peugeot.

Mr Bean said he had been asked to drive his friend, who he had known for about 16 years and also worked for as a painter and decorator, because he had been drinking.

But within just four minutes of arriving, 35-year-old Mr Pritchard had been knifed through the ribcage to a depth of almost 23cm by Mr Brabon's drinking pal that evening, William Cosier, who is now on trial over the killing in March this year.

The victim, who lived in Faversham with his partner and their two young children, suffered massive blood loss and collapsed in the street.

The court heard Mr Bean initially drove away at Mr Pritchard's request but returned to the scene where he twice phoned for an ambulance before dragging him into the back of the car with Mr Brabon.

He also recalled that while en route to A&E at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford he had flagged down a 'blue light' ambulance to stop for his now unconscious pal, only for it to drive off and leave him having to do a U-turn and give chase for several miles until it finally pulled over to assist.

But during cross-examination by Cosier's legal team it was revealed that Mr Bean, who was himself arrested as a suspect, gave a different account to police of how Mr Pritchard came to be in his car.

He even denied knowing him as life-saving attempts were being made by the emergency services at the roadside.

Bodyworn camera footage played to the jury recorded him saying he had been driving past the pub when he saw a commotion and had been asked to take the stabbed man to hospital.

When the officer pointed out the seriousness of the situation and said he wanted "real honesty", Mr Bean maintained his account was "genuine" and had been on his way to his mother's home at the time.

The jury was also told that he did not tell police there was a gun in the car boot or that he had put it in the vehicle after the knifing.

Asked by Jonathan HIggs KC why he had said he did not know both his friend and Mr Brabon, who was also in the Peugeot, Mr Bean replied: "I was frightened."

When this was followed up with a question as to why he had not revealed the whereabouts of the weapon, he said: "It was so quick. Everything was rushed, manic."

But he told the court that in the same footage he could later be heard referring to the dying Mr Pritchard as "my mate".

At the start of his evidence on Monday, Mr Bean said he did not know Cosier had a knife until after his friend had been injured.

Furthermore, the first he saw of a gun, he added, was when he found his heavily-bleeding friend on the ground holding his chest and was asked to "put his stuff" in the car.

Mr Bean also maintained he did not know why the altercation had occurred, and said he had just been dropping his friend at the pub that night.

He also denied - and laughed - when asked by Mr Higgs whether he or Mr Pritchard had "a store of BB guns" and refuted the accusation he had deliberately hidden the weapon in the spare tyre compartment.

"Why didn't you tell the police it was there?" asked the defence barrister, to which Mr Bean replied: "Because I didn't."

"Why not?" queried Mr Higgs, prompting the response: "I don't know. It was all a rush. My mate was on the floor dying."

The jury also heard that when police asked Mr Bean if he knew who owned the gun he had said he "hadn't a clue".

Asked in court why he had told officers that, he explained that "at that time" of being questioned he did not know it was Mr Pritchard's.

He then denied in a series of questions that he had not gone "looking for trouble" that night or had himself been armed with a gun.

"You had turned up there with Adam Pritchard looking for a fight, hadn't you, the pair of you?" asked Mr HIggs.

"Not at all," answered Mr Bean. "There's nothing on my (criminal) record for fighting. Why would I be looking for a fight?

"I'm not a fighting man. Why would I be looking for trouble?"

He then repeatedly answered "No" as Mr Higgs said they had gone to the pub armed "with at least one gun, possibly two", and that although he gave some help to his seriously injured friend, his "priority" was "not to tell the police anything" about the incident.

"You didn't tell them anything about it because you didn't want them to know the truth," asserted the barrister.

"No," said Mr Bean as he concluded his evidence.

Cosier, 34, of Well Lane, Canterbury, denies murder and the alternative offence of manslaughter.

It is alleged the killing was the culmination of a series of phone calls and WhatsApp messages between the victim and Mr Brabon which veered from friendly banter to argument and back to banter.

Cosier, who is known as Billy or Bill, claimed following his arrest that he acted in self-defence and stabbed Mr Pritchard to stop him "continually" firing a BB gun at him during their confrontation in the street.

The court heard he was left bleeding from his head and neck and had to have several metal pellets removed at hospital.

A motorist driving along The Street as the fight between Cosier and Mr Pritchard spilled into the road told the court he saw the two men moving towards and away from each other like "in a game of tag".

One of them appeared to be holding what was described as a water pistol.

But Andrew Shepherd said he thought they were "larking about" as neither was being aggressive to the other.

Describing the gun, he told the jury: "It looked to me like the old pistols they used to use in the cowboy movies.

"It was a pistol-shaped thing, which I took to be a water pistol because he was pointing it about and waving it but there was no noise or apparent shooting."

When asked by Mr Higgs if he thought it was serious he would have stopped, the witness replied: "I thought they were mucking about...It looked like they were having fun, having a chase."

A resident who phoned police spoke of seeing a man wielding a knife in front of him as he moved towards the other, and then hearing "rapid gun fire".

But Joe Clayson told the operator that although he heard as many as eight shots, he said the weapon did not sound like "a proper gun" and compared the noise to "lighting fire crackers".

The court also heard that Mr Pritchard remained upright for longer than would be normally expected, after the fatal injury.

In her evidence to the court on Friday, forensic pathologist Dr Virginia Fitzpatrick-Swallow gave the cause of death as a stab wound to the chest and abdomen.

But she said the footage of the victim in the immediate aftermath was "a good illustration" of how factors such as underlying health and the body's own compensatory mechanisms could affect how soon someone succumbs.

"He remained upright for quite a lot longer than one might normally predict," the pathologist told the jury.

"I'm surprised at how long he remained capable of remaining upright, walking, talking, given his injury, and that is testament to his underlying health.

"Considering the length of time we would normally expect, he seemed to be capable of a far greater survival time."

Dr Fitzpatrick-Swallow added that Mr Pritchard would have "slowly" succumbed to his injury, agreeing with defence barrister Jonathan Higgs KC that the process was "not like turning off a light".

The trial continues tomorrow, with Cosier expected to start giving evidence.