A man has denied murder after a former nightclub doorman died from shotgun wounds.

Kenneth Batchelor, of Hendon Cottages, Canterbury Road, Chilham, is accused of killing Matthew Clements on November 18, last year.

Mr Clements, a 26-stone body builder, aged 41, and known as Mad Matt and Bigfoot, suffered a fatal chest wound outside 50-year-old Batchelor’s home.

Batchelor entered the plea at a brief hearing at Maidstone Crown Court on Monday. Bail, conditional on residence and reporting to police, was continued.

Judge Andrew Patience, QC, set the trial date for March 2, next year.

Mr Clements’s home in Wayside Avenue, St Michael’s, Tenterden, was firebombed in August, 2006.

He claimed he had previously been shot at and denied being a police informer.