A woman grieving over the death of her daughter stabbed her sister 27 times and left her to die in a field near their home in Chartham, a court heard.

Phoebe Barton then disappeared before being found by police a few days later wandering in Chilham.

The 49-year-old mother later told police she pulled a knife out of her bag and launched the attack after her older sister Karen Barton punched her.

Barton denies murder but admits manslaughter.

Jonathan Higgs, prosecuting, said Barton was devastated by the death of her daughter Rachel, in her early 30s, in a car crash in 2008 and it appeared to be a highly significant factor leading to the killing almost a year later.

"Phoebe Barton started to drink increasingly and her behaviour became what some might describe as eccentric," Mr Higgs told Maidstone Crown Court.

It included taking her daughter's possessions to a wood and setting fire to them and refusing to visit her grave.

Barton and her 51-year-old sister shared a council house in Highland Road.

The trial continues.

For more on this case, see this week's Kentish Gazette.