A woman left her partner lying injured on the ground while she went to the pub... because she thought “he was being a drama queen”.

But John McDaid, who had been staying in a motor home parked in the park and ride site in New Dover Road, Canterbury, had suffered a fractured skull.

Philip Bennets QC, prosecuting, told a jury at Canterbury Crown Court the 43-year-old had died from head injuries after falling from the camper van.

His 45-year-old lover Julie Barron - who has denied manslaughter – is alleged to have told her sister, Jean: “I killed John.

“We had a fight... I got so angry with him, I picked him up and chucked him out of the door.

“I can’t bear the thought that I have killed him. I just thought he was being a drama queen. I left him there and went to the pub.”

Barron, who now lives in Reading, Berkshire, is then alleged to have said she returned and found him lying on the floor.

Mr Bennets claimed she told her sister: “Got him inside the van and put him to bed. He was making weird noises like a walrus then the noise stopped. I tried to talk to him and he didn’t reply.

“I prised his eyes open and he looked like a cod fish.”

A post mortem showed that McDaid had suffered a skull fracture consistent with a backwards fall, the jury heard.

The prosecutor said that on June 28 last year police had received a 999 call at 12.50am from Barron reporting his death.

The park and ride in New Dover Road, Canterbury

“Police and ambulance went to New Dover Road and went into a Fiat Ducato Motor Home and spoke with Barron.

“Inside upon a bed they found the lifeless body of John McDaid.”

He claimed that she told officers she had returned from the pub to find her partner snoring – and later couldn’t wake him.

Mr Bennets added: “Over the next few days she gave a tearful account of what had happened. She said she had an argument and pushed him out of the door of the motor home. He fell and hit his head on the floor.”

The couple had arrived at the site the previous day when other people parked nearby heard “banging and crashing” coming from Barron’s camper van.

Later, Barron went to the Old Gate Inn where she downed four or five double vodka and Pepsis – and was seen sporting a black eye.

She would later tell officers that McDaid had hit her during a row and later she had pushed him away with her foot and he fell, hitting his head.

Barron was later arrested and told police: “One minute he was snoring, the next he was dead.”

The trial continues.