A man accused of killing his friend by slipping 27 anti-depressant tablets into his beer told how he acted “in a mad, crazy, drunken moment” as a joke.

Lee Webster said he would stick up for 4ft tall Jason Wood against bullies and gave him somewhere to live, as well as lending him money and cooking for him.

Maidstone Crown Court has heard that 30-year-old Mr Wood had been drinking for several days with Webster and another friend Steve McNamara at a house in Camden Square, Ramsgate, when the tragedy happened.

Webster, of Dover Road East, Gravesend, denies manslaughter and an alternative charge of administering poison or noxious substance as to endanger life.

Mr Wood, who weighed just six stone, was found slumped in an armchair within three hours of swallowing the Mirtazapine pills and declared dead at the scene. His alcohol level was found to be almost three times the legal driving limit.

Webster, who will not give evidence, told police he and Mr Wood had drunk about six beers each that evening and played on an X-Box.

The 26-year-old father said he was meant to take one tablet of Mirtazapine a day before he went to bed for his depression and to help him sleep. The bottle held a month’s supply of 30 pills.

On October 22 last year the three had each taken one tablet of another anti-depressant, Amitriptyline, at about 11pm. They also had a cannabis “spliff” between them.

They had a competition to see who could stay awake the longest after taking the Amitriptyline.

Webster said in the interview: “We all had too much to drink. I picked up the Metazepam (sic) bottle and basically turned round and said to Steve: ‘Look, shall we do this as a joke?’ and, like, put the tablets into like his can of beer.

“Steve said ‘Yeah’, so I put the tablets into his can of beer and it started frothing up and, like, we sat there and laughed about it.

“I feel bad and I feel guilty for what I have done, because at the end of the day Jason was my friend and I didn’t mean to kill him" - Lee Webster

“Then Jason’s come up from the toilet, basically picked up his beer and started drinking it and said it tasted funny. Then me and Steve both turned around and told him: ‘It’s alright, just drink it.’”

He did it, he said, in a mad, crazy, drunken moment as a joke and had no intention to kill Mr Wood. He added he had previously taken 14 or 15 of the tablets and they just made him go to sleep. He did not realise they could kill.

Asked how he felt he said: “I feel bad and I feel guilty for what I have done, because at the end of the day Jason was my friend and I didn’t mean to kill him. It was just something stupid when we was all drunk and got too out of control.”

The prosecution allege the combination of the pills, alcohol and sleep condition Mr Wood suffered from led to his death.

The trial continues.