The man accused of killing a Dover father-of-three with one punch had been drinking in nine pubs and bars prior to the incident, a close friend has revealed.

Declan Buckley told the jury how he had met up with pal Gerald Philpott in the Black Bull Pub in Folkestone at about 2pm

He said they began drinking vodka and lemonade before, together with a third friend, moved onto the Red Cow pub at four o’clock.

“Gerald and I drank another two or three vodkas before going to the Park Inn Pub where we had about two or three or four drinks," he added.

The three friends then moved onto the East Kent Pub where he claimed “we were then quite drunk” before moving onto Chambers Pub “for another one or two”.

The jury heard how they then went to Harveys and then The Office where they met up with more friends before going to Rock Salt and Gillespies.

Mr Buckley said it was in the nightclub that one of the group was ordered to leave and the group, including Philpott then left.

He claimed that as he was walking home he heard “ a commotion” behind him and heard someone shout loudly “I’m a traveller”.

“I turned around and could see arms in the air and a man falling to the floor. I didn’t hear a blow. Gerard just turned around and walked away.”

Mr Buckley added that he returned to the scene of the incident “to see if the man was all right. He wasn’t.”

The following day he discovered about the death on Facebook and saw Philpott at his sister’s home “but we didn’t discuss what had happened because he was leaving," he added.

Earlier the dead man, Steve Holton’s 44-year-old girlfriend revealed she began a relationship with him two year’s ago after he visited her father’s fish and chip shop.

She said the two had gone out for a drink at Gillespies and the True Briton pub.

In her statement, read to the jury, she said Mr Holton had gone to the toilet and lost contact with him – and only discovered he had died when police visited her parents’’ home the next day.

Mr Philpott denies manslaughter.

The trial, which is expected to last three days, continues.