A grandfather was strangled to death and dumped in woodland undergrowth after a seemingly chance encounter with a man who bore him "a long-standing grudge", a murder trial has heard.

Wayne Woodgate was said by one of his children to have stopped going out because he feared seeing Stephen Castle in public.

But it was after being dropped off in Tunbridge Wells town centre by his son, Joseph, on October 17 last year that the pair met - and within hours Mr Woodgate had been killed, allegedly by his own jacket cord being pulled tight around his neck.

At the start of Castle's trial, Maidstone Crown Court heard the 59-year-old later told police he blamed Mr Woodgate for him having been sent to prison after a police raid at his home had uncovered a firearm.

He said Mr Woodgate was “a grass” and that he had “lost everything” because of him.

But although he would eventually admit responsibility for Mr Woodgate’s death, describing how he felt “the devil inside and saw red”, Castle denied being “a cold killer”.

He claimed he had wanted to give him “a slap at most”.

The two men had initially walked past each other in Mount Pleasant Road at around 3.30pm that day before coming face-to-face in Goods Station Road.

It was here, having been allegedly told by a shouting and swearing Castle that he (Mr Woodgate) was the reason he (Castle) “got nine years”, that Mr Woodgate was “put into” a Peugeot van and driven away.

That encounter was not only witnessed by a concerned member of the public who made a 999 call but also partly by his son, jurors heard.

He had been waiting to drive his father home when, in his rear view mirror, he saw a “scared” Mr Woodgate with Castle before the pair disappeared out of sight.

Having phoned his dad, Joseph Woodgate asked where he had gone, only to be told by his dad that he had to “go and see somebody”, before adding he had been told to turn his phone off.

“In a nutshell, Stephen Castle had a long-standing grudge against Wayne Woodgate...”

Thereafter the line went dead and all further attempts to contact him were in vain, his device having been powered off within a minute.

Prosecutor Ben Irwin told jurors that that 32-second call with his son and the CCTV footage of him in Tunbridge Wells before sitting “squashed” in the front of the vehicle as it drove away were the last time the 54-year-old was heard from or seen until his dumped body was discovered in Peasmarsh, East Sussex.

In the meantime, Castle, who was living at Kipping's Cross Farmhouse on the Hastings Road in Matfield, was traced by police and arrested that evening on suspicion of kidnap.

At that stage however it was not known by officers investigating Mr Woodgate’s disappearance that he had been killed by Castle and then his body driven in a hired Renault Traffic van to where he was dumped.

But jurors heard that Castle’s response to being arrested was to reply: “I don’t even know what you are talking about. I’ve done some things but kidnap?”

He then told officers en route to custody that he had met Mr Woodgate in Tunbridge Wells before dropping him off “safe” in Ferndale.

However, the jury heard he then joked: “He is under my bed in my flat.”

Castle was subjected to three “emergency” interviews plus formal questioning in which he claimed Mr Woodgate was “off his nut” and any mention of “nine years” was not a threat but an attempt to persuade him to do him “a favour” and buy “hash” for him.

The court heard that following these interviews, Castle was released on bail.

However, in the time leading up to his re-arrest on October 22 - this time on suspicion of murder - the court was told he returned to where he had left Mr Woodgate and “made further efforts” to conceal his body.

Castle, who works as a painter and decorator, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but is on trial accused of murder.

Opening the prosecution case against him, Mr Irwin told the jury on Wednesday (May 7) that the meeting between the two men that fateful day was not one of “two old friends”.

He said: “In a nutshell, Stephen Castle had a long-standing grudge against Wayne Woodgate.

“On October 17 last year, after what appears to have been a chance encounter in Tunbridge Wells in the town centre, Stephen Castle travelled with Mr Woodgate and took him to his home address.

“Once there, and when the two of them were alone, Stephen Castle strangled Mr Woodgate and he killed him.

“The prosecution say that was an act of murder, murder being the unlawful killing of another with intention to kill or cause really serious injury.

“The prosecution say it was murder because there was an intent to kill or cause really serious injury.

“And after killing him, Stephen Castle went on to attempt to dispose of Mr Woodgate’s body, hiding it in undergrowth just off the A268 around Peasmarsh.”

The court heard that Mr Woodgate, who lived with son Joseph in Tunbridge Wells, had gone into the town centre that day to attend an appointment with Change Grow Live, a drug and alcohol support group.

But before he was picked up by his son at a pre-arranged spot in Goods Station Road, he popped to the nearby Opera House Wetherspoon pub where he was seen playing a fruit machine, using his phone and drinking from a cup.

It was within minutes of leaving at 3.24pm that CCTV captured him and Castle passing within feet of each other as they walked in opposite directions along Mount Pleasant Road.

Six minutes later their paths crossed again on the Meadow Road car park one-way system.

Mr Woodgate was still on foot but Castle was by then a passenger in the Peugeot Partner van being driven by a work colleague.

The court was told that Ring doorbell footage captured the moment Mr Woodgate and Castle came face-to-face on Goods Station Road at 3.33pm.

Jurors were told the 999 caller, who phoned police at 3.43pm, reported having seen an elderly-looking man - Mr Woodgate - being shouted at by a younger man - Castle.

He was “effing and blinding”, shouting and calling him “a f***ing junkie”, explained Mr Irwin.

When the van pulled up, Mr Woodgate appeared “not to have much choice” but to get in, the court was told.

Joseph Woodgate had also witnessed part of this alleged confrontation as he sat in the car with his toddler son.

He told police his father not only looked scared but had also pressed himself up against railings as if to put distance between himself and Castle.

Mr Woodgate said he also heard Castle tell his dad to “Shut up”.

Read more: Tributes paid to Wayne Woodgate who is remembered as the ‘face of Tunbridge Wells’

But having briefly glanced down at his phone, he then looked back up to see both his father and Castle had disappeared.

Detailing the call he had then made to his father, Joseph Woodgate said he also heard someone effectively ask “Who is that?” before his dad replied “My son” and the line went dead.

He added he thought the two men were walking at the time as he could hear footsteps.

The court heard Castle’s movements, including the dumping of the deceased’s body, were tracked by police through various methods, including CCTV and ANPR footage.

These showed him driving a second vehicle - a Renault Traffic van - to and from Peasmarsh shortly after 4.15pm that same day.

Initially, after his first arrest, he had claimed that having met Mr Woodgate, they shook hands and went to buy “hash” together.

But it was not until after his arrest on suspicion of murder and over the course of several interviews - having initially maintained he had not been involved in Mr Woodgate’s death - that he began to reveal his victim’s last moments alive and confessed to killing him.

Jurors heard he not only spoke of how he had throttled Mr Woodgate but also how he had “put him out in the woods” and then attempted to disguise any smell.

“He said he was sorry for what he had done to Wayne Woodgate. He said his intention had been to ‘put the wind up him and at the worst, give him a slap’,” Mr Irwin told the court.

“He said he was gutted and he wasn’t a cold killer - that it just happened, events unfolded and one thing led to another.

“He said he had got rid of Wayne Woodgate’s body and went back the next day and moved it. He said he found a little ditch before covering the body up and putting lime over him to keep the smell down, something he said he had read about.”

Castle also told police he had wanted to speak to Mr Woodgate about him being “grassed up” and going to prison, adding it had “all been eating him away”.

But he then claimed the victim had been “mocking” him as they sat talking in his van.

“So he was agitated… He grabbed hold of Mr Woodgate to give him a slap - a back-hander - and just saw red,” continued Mr Irwin.

“He said ‘I felt so effing evil. I don't know why. I just felt like the devil was in me and it’s like I had all this rage inside me that I just wanted to get out of me and unfortunately I took it out on Wayne. I'm gutted about that, I'm totally sorry that I done that to him’.”

The prosecutor added: “He said he had blanked out, seen red and grabbed hold of him.

“He said ‘I think it annoyed me because he didn’t react back and then there was a cord on his jacket and I wrapped it round his neck and basically I wanted to scare the life out of him, f***ing really scare him, but it just went too far and that’s that. He didn't struggle or nothing and the next minute it was just over’.

“He said Mr Woodgate didn’t fight back and that he (Castle) just had ‘so much evil in him’ and he took it out on Mr Woodgate.”

Castle also told police he had burnt Mr Woodgate’s jacket and thrown away the lighter he used.

When asked why, he added: "Because I had just murdered somebody.”

“The prosecution case is that when Stephen Castle killed Wayne Woodgate, he intended to do so…”

The court heard he described himself as a “total gym junkie” who took steroids along with morphine and medication for back pain, and said the combination of drugs meant he could “erupt” over the slightest thing.

But he maintained he did not “go out to murder” Mr Woodgate and that what happened was, as far as he was concerned, manslaughter.

Although he first claimed to have strangled the victim at Bewl Water, he later told police the killing happened outside the farmhouse.

At a post-mortem examination, Mr Woodgate was found to have a thin ligature mark encircling his entire neck, as well as a fractured voicebox and bruising.

Pathologist Dr Benjamin Swift concluded that while consistent with compression from a narrow ligature, force from a forearm or hand could not be ruled out.

The court heard that Castle’s case is that although he admits unlawfully killing Mr Woodgate, he neither intended to kill nor cause really serious harm.

But the prosecution say that assertion and account of what happened was “significantly undermined” by the pathologist’s conclusion that although sustained force to the neck would cause a person to fall unconscious in eight to 10 seconds, “deliberate” pressure would need to be applied for more than two minutes to result in death.

Mr Irwin told the jury: “The prosecution case is that when Stephen Castle killed Wayne Woodgate, he intended to do so. At the very least, he must have intended to cause him really serious harm.

“And at the end of this case we will invite you to consider just what else Stephen Castle could have had in mind when he strangled Wayne Woodgate by wrapping a ligature around his neck and holding it tight until he was dead.”

The trial continues.