A woman accused of being part of an elaborate murder plot to shoot her father's best friend was “distressed and sobbing” when asked about where she had been on the day he was shot, her aunt told the jury.

Heather Pollard had a shocked look on her face when the aunt, Emma Worsfold, told her they needed to have words.

The 20 year old is accused of plotting to kill Ray Weatherall in a plan hatched with her father Glenn Pollard and Mr Weatherall's wife Hayley, who was Mr Pollard's lover.

Mr Weatherall, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, was shot in the face in Sandwich Marina in November last year.

Mrs Worsfold said her niece rarely cried, but she hyperventilated when questioned about her car being abandoned, with her Labrador puppy inside, on a private track near the marina on the day of the shooting.

It was later discovered that the Citroen was parked just a four-minute walk from where a sniper bullet was fired at Mr Weatherall.

The car was driven away at speed just five minutes after a 999 call was made.

Mrs Worsfold said in evidence she feared her niece was dead when police arrived at her home in Worth, near Deal, at about 3.30pm that day.

Her car had been reported to them at 11am as being abandoned at New Down Farm with “a frantic and stressed” dog inside.

Two community police officers searched the area at about 1.30pm but could not trace the owner.

Inside the car they found a prescription in Pollard's name and with Mrs Worsfold's address on it.

Pollard had lived with her aunt for about nine months and they had “an extremely close” relationship.

Mrs Worsfold said Pollard's behaviour that day was out of character as she was often in bed until midday and would not go anywhere without her Labrador called Sasha.

She told Maidstone Crown Court on Monday: "It frightened me to death because I thought she was dead.

"She was completely attached to that dog and couldn't go anywhere without it. She called it her support dog."

On discovering her niece was missing, she tried in vain to phone her. She also called Pollard's then girlfriend before contacting Glenn Pollard, who was “agitated, panicky and obnoxious”.

Mrs Worsfold said she also went to the donkey farm where her niece worked but could not find her.

She eventually saw her at her grandparents' home in West Stourmouth, near Canterbury, at about 4.30pm.

"I had never seen the look of shock on her face that I saw that day when I said to her 'I think we need to have words’,” said Mrs Worsfold.

"Heather didn't want to speak and I kept asking her: 'What on earth has gone on? Why were you down an off-beaten track with big private signs? That is completely out of character, and to have left your dog. You never do that.’

"She reacted but it took a long time. She was sobbing, hyperventilating and very distressed when I was confronting her. She rarely ever cries."

Pollard told her aunt and grandmother Gillian Bianchi – Mr Weatherall's sister - that she had gone looking for a new dog walk.

She then claimed to have met a stranger and, having told him she was unsure about her sexuality, they had sex in the grass.

Her grandmother, Mrs Bianchi, told Pollard to "stop making up stories".

During the exchange Mrs Bianchi received a call to say Mr Weatherall had been shot.

Asked about Pollard’s reaction to the shooting, Mrs Worsfold demonstrated how she gasped, put her hands to her face and said “Oh no.”

Mrs Worsfold and Mrs Bianchi went to see Mr Weatherall at his home after he was discharged from hospital the same day.

Hayley and Glenn Pollard were also at the house. Mrs Worsfold said the atmosphere was odd, considering her uncle had just been shot.

"I didn't stay long because I didn't feel very welcome,” she added. “It was like a dead atmosphere.

“The only one who was welcoming, and bless him because he couldn't speak very well and was drugged up from hospital, was Ray."

The trial continues.