The neighbour of a fatally stabbed pensioner has told a court how he saw the alleged murderer "ranting, raving and out of control".

Jurors heard Stephen Price found a bleeding and seriously wounded Derek O'Hare on his doorstep, and the man said to have attacked him - Ajay Porter - brandishing what appeared to be a baseball bat.

It is alleged 36-year-old Porter knifed his close friend to death in a communal hallway outside the 66-year-old's flat in Anstee Road, Dover, shortly after 10pm on December 11 last year.

Giving evidence at Canterbury Crown Court today(June 14), Mr Price said that he initially heard banging and then shouting outside his home on the top floor of the over-55 residents' block.

Having first looked through his spyhole, he then opened his door and yelled "What the hell is going on?", to see the bat-wielding man turn and come back up the stairs to the landing.

Describing the "surprising and frightening" scene that greeted him, Mr Price said: "I noticed Derek on my doorstep to the side in the condition he was in and with blood everywhere.

"He was still alive, looking at me, but he never spoke.

"The man (Porter) was shouting 'Never mind him, look what he has done to me'.

"He was shaking what he had in his hand around, putting his arms out, saying 'Look what he has done to me' and literally just ranting and raving.

"He took a step forward, I told him it was very serious and he should 'you-know-what' off, which he did, still with the bat.

"He was ranting and raving about something Derek had done to him. He was in a rage. Who knew what he was going to do."

Mr Price said he could not see what was wrong with Porter's arms but described him as "having a turn".

"His arms were up, down. He was literally out of control at the time. He had lost the plot."

Asked about Mr O'Hare, he continued: "Derek was in a very bad way. I didn't need to be a doctor to see that.

"When I moved his head, my hand was covered in blood. He was just breathing but very shallow. It was very laboured breathing.

"Within minutes he closed his eyes...There was nothing I could have done for Derek. He had lost so much blood."

Mr Price dialled 999 and police took over resuscitation attempts on arriving but sadly Mr O'Hare was pronounced dead at 10.55pm.

The court heard he had suffered seven stab wounds. One to the mid-chest area and measuring 12cm in depth was later described as "catastrophic" by a pathologist.

The bat, which was in fact a wooden stick, was found by police in two pieces on the top floor landing and on stairs leading down to the first floor.

However, the knife used to inflict the wounds has never been recovered.

Mr Price described his neighbour as "happy, cheerful and always singing". He also knew he had "medical problems pain-wise" and smoked cannabis.

He told the court that during the shouting he had heard one voice, which he thought was Mr O'Hare's, saying "I've done a lot for you over the years" and another voice saying words to the effect of "You wasn't as hard as you thought you was".

But he agreed when questioned by Porter's barrister Ian Henderson KC that he could not be sure who said what or in what order.

At the start of the trial, jurors heard Mr O'Hare and the murder accused had often taken drugs together and in the days leading up to the killing, the pensioner had accused his friend of stealing an amount of DMT - known for its hallucinogenic and psychedelic effects - from him.

On the night of the alleged killing, Porter had gone to see his friend to "clear the air", it was said.

But he later told police following his arrest that on arriving at the flats, he was repeatedly struck to the head with a wooden stick by Mr O'Hare who, it is also claimed, was armed with a knife.

Porter, who was living between his mum's and grandmother's homes in Dover at the time, denies murder and having a bladed article on the basis he acted out of "reasonable and necessary" self-defence.

It is the prosecution case, however, that Mr O'Hare had been the victim of a "vicious and merciless" attack by his friend.

Within two hours of the violence, Porter spoke to his estranged wife in an "emotional" late-night phone call.

Described as being "upset, apologetic, and reflective", he talked for almost 90 minutes with his partner of 19 years.

Then, when the couple met up the following day, she noticed his forehead was cut and his eyes and nose bruised and swollen.

Michaela Porter told the court that although they had separated by December last year, they remained in regular contact, mostly with regards to their five children, and are still married.

Described as a "family man", Porter had been at her home in Dover during the day and was said to be in a "good mood".

Having left the property late afternoon, the court heard that it was just before 11.45pm that they spoke on the phone for one hour and 25 minutes.

Mrs Porter said she thought she had initially missed a call from her husband so phoned him back.

He had previously had an affair and much of the conversation, she said, focused on the reason for their break-up.

"It was just a conversation that needed to be had. It was very emotional," explained Mrs Porter.

‘His arms were up, down. He was literally out of control at the time. He had lost the plot...’

She told the jury her husband was doing most of the talking and although he sounded "upset", she could not say if he was crying.

Mrs Porter said she could tell, however, that he had been drinking but that he was not "too intoxicated".

"It was actually a nice conversation," she added, agreeing with Mr Henderson that he had been "very apologetic" about their situation.

However, the court was told Porter did not speak to his wife about what he had been doing since leaving her home, simply telling her that he was at his mum's home in Oswald Road.

The couple spoke again the following morning, when Porter asked her to pick up clothes from his grandmother's house and take them to his mum's as he was not feeling well.

Mrs Porter said that on seeing her husband he appeared to be hungover and had a large graze running from his hairline down to an eyebrow.

Asked by prosecutor Nina Ellin KC if he had told her how it had been caused, Mrs Porter replied: "He said he had fallen down the steps to his mum's front door.

"They have steep steps and he said he fell and hit his head on the wall."

Mrs Porter saw her husband again on December 13 at his grandmother's house, where he seemed tired and had a headache.

She said she also noticed the injuries to his face had worsened, telling the jury: "It was severely swollen and I was actually worried about the eyes."

The following day police arrived at her home looking for Porter but did not tell her why.

Porter handed himself in to police on December 15 and, in a video recorded interview played in court, he told officers he had been attacked by Mr O'Hare as he walked up the stairs to his flat.

"I took two or three steps and he then swung a baseball bat over the railings and started hitting me in the head. He nearly knocked me out with the one hit," he explained.

"He hit me another three or four times. I was dizzy, blood was pouring, I couldn't see properly.

"I put my arms out to defend myself and the next thing I knew I blacked out."

Porter said he then found himself walking along London Road.

"I wasn't expecting him to hit me. I wasn't expecting him to do anything like that," he continued, describing it as "quite a scary situation".

"The first whack was a big hit. The blood has come out, I couldn't see. The next thing I knew I was walking up the road," Porter said.

Although he described Mr O'Hare as "not really a violent person", Porter said he thought the pensioner was going to kill him.

Porter denied hitting his friend and said he did not see any other weapons or a knife.

The trial continues.