The brother of murdered Jack Treeby has claimed he had nothing to do with the attack and said he fled from the scene having been shot at twice.

Bill Treeby admitted acting like a coward by running from the Mondeo car he said he was driving and leaving behind his wife of 30 years.

He told a hushed courtroom he had gone to a sister's home in Quarry Road, Tovil, on December 27 last year to talk to his brothers Jack and Gary and "mediate" over a row between them and his son Billy.

But when he arrived, he said, Jack and Gary were armed with guns.

Treeby, 50, claimed Jack shot out the rear window of his car with a handgun and Gary had a shotgun.

He said ran off and did not know Jack, 35, had been killed until he heard it on the radio the next day.

Maidstone Crown Court has heard father-of-five Jack, of Sunderland Drive, Rainham, was run over by a Range Rover and Gary was shot in the leg at point blank range.

Jack's son, also Jack, 18, told the jury his uncle Bill had earlier driven into him in the Range Rover as he said: "Bye bye."

Bill Treeby denied he was driving the Range Rover and that he threatened his son Billy in Elmley Prison last weekend because he knew that was what he was going to claim.

Sally O'Neil, QC for Billy, said: "You know Billy was agreeing he arrived in the back of the Range Rover with two people in the front.

"You are trying to say something which will be hurtful to your son Billy.

"He was not naming the other two, one of whom had a gun. You knew that. You knew he was going to say the same to the jury.

"You realised what he was going to say, facing these serious charges, is that it was you who was driving the Range Rover."

Treeby replied: "I didn't know that. I was not driving no Range Rover."

Miss O'Neil suggested there was a plan to attack Billy, 29, at a prison church service last Sunday because he realised what he was going to say.

"There is one person and one person only you are out to help in this case and that is Bill Treeby senior," she said.

"Your account to this jury of what happened that day is for perfectly innocent reasons you had gone along in the Mondeo with your wife of 30 years, had been shot at twice through the car where you and she were both sitting and you had then driven off after accidentally clipping a car and abandoned the car and abandoned Charity."

Treeby replied: "I ran off and left her because I am a coward. I should have grabbed hold of her and taken her with me.

"I don't know what happened after I left. All I wanted to do was get away."

He added: "I am not responsible for my brother's death."

Bill Treeby, his wife Charity, 51, and sons Billy and George, 23, all of Queen Street, Paddock Wood, deny murdering Jack Treeby, attempting to murder Gary Treeby and Jack Treeby Jnr, causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Gary Treeby and attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm on Jack Treeby Jnr.