A pub customer made “heroic” efforts to save a landlord’s life after tackling his knife-wielding alleged killer, a murder trial has heard.

Eddie Williams told Maidstone Crown Court he had been having a "crafty pint" at the Hare and Hounds in the town when he intervened in the attack on Matthew Bryant.

In what the prosecution allege was an "irrational but deliberate" onslaught, Mr Bryant was stabbed three times - twice in the back and once to the chest - by Stephanie Langley, his ex sister-in-law.

That blow proved fatal within seconds, having penetrated 20cm deep, going through his heart and into his liver.

One eye-witness later described him as having "died on his feet" before he fell face down in the road outside the pub he had run since 2015.

Langley, of Wilsons Lane, East Farleigh, denies murdering the 52-year-old, as well as manslaughter, but has pleaded guilty to possessing a knife.

During her trial, jurors have heard the pair had not seen each other for more than two decades until March or May last year in a chance encounter at the pub in Lower Boxley Road.

On that occasion she did not speak to Mr Bryant but did tell her son - who played for the pool team - of the family link.

She also said he was violent, she "hated" him and claimed he was a rapist.

There was no further contact until the early evening of September 11 when she returned to the drinking establishment and allegedly made repeated death threats.

Mr Bryant had in fact dialled 999 and was mid-call in the street outside when his phone was knocked from his hand by 54-year-old Langley, who then lunged at him with the large kitchen knife.

Giving evidence on Friday (April 12), Mr Williams said he had popped into the pub on his way home.

“I chinned her and laid her out - the best thing to do in those split seconds…”

Having initially sat outside with a drink, he went into the bar as the landlord was making his call.

But he told the court he was chatting to Mr Bryant's wife Caroline with his back to the door when she screamed "in panic".

Mr Williams said he turned to see Langley wielding the bloody weapon in her right hand above her head with the blade pointing down.

When he rushed outside with Mrs Bryant, he told the court he could see the landlord was bleeding from his back.

He went to help him stay on his feet while shouting at Mrs Bryant to also hold him up.

But he said he could see Langley - who he did not know - waving the knife around and, as he was holding Mr Bryant, she stabbed him again.

"Out of nowhere she has come over my arm in a downwards motion very, very forcefully into his right-hand chest, so much so that the whole blade was inside the wound and her hand slipped off the handle," Mr Williams told the jury.

"I went 'Don't pull the knife out!' With that, within seconds, she lunged over again and pulled the knife out.

"I was still screaming 'Get hold of Matt' to Caroline but in that split second of her (Langley) grabbing the knife and pulling it out, that's when I let Matt go and he went down, face first on the floor.

"There was no effort to stop himself at all - poleaxed, face down. It was an awful sound. I still hear it now."

“She looked like someone who had something going on in her mind…”

Langley still had the knife, holding it high as if intending another stabbing motion, said Mr Williams, and so he put his arm out to block the blow.

As he did so, the weapon came out of her hand and bounced off onto the ground.

Mr Williams recalled how he then hit a "wild" Langley.

"I was already in a swing (of his arm) to try and grab that knife and so went from a grabbing motion to a punching motion and just laid her out," he explained.

"I chinned her and laid her out - the best thing to do in those split seconds."

Asked by prosecutor Nina Ellin KC whether Langley had been saying anything during the attack, Mr Williams replied: "It was disgusting, it was pretty bad language - 'I hope he is f****** dead, he's this, he's that'.

"Just vile language coming out. She was in a rage."

Having punched Langley to the ground, Mr Williams then stood with his foot on her arm until he was able to summon a passer-by to help restrain her.

He then went to try and assist the dying Mr Bryant, describing to the court how he used a Halfords store card to try to stem the blood from the chest wound.

While life-saving efforts were attempted, Langley had got up and was sitting on a pub table, shouting, swearing and again branding the landlord a rapist.

"She was ranting 'I hope he is f****** dead. I hope I killed him' over and over again," added Mr Williams.

Attempts at CPR continued until a passing firefighter took over and an ambulance was flagged down but Mr Bryant was eventually declared dead. Langley was arrested at the scene.

During cross-examination by Langley's barrister John Cooper KC, Mr Williams described her as having "an attitude" when she had first arrived at the pub just after 5.50pm - about 15 minutes before the alleged murder.

"She looked like someone who had something going on in her mind. She had a purpose," he explained

By 6pm, and having allegedly told the landlord "You're dead tonight", she was leaving and he (Mr Bryant) was ringing the police.

But as she headed to her car parked up the road, Langley spoke to Mr Williams.

"She said something like 'Do you like this pub? Do you like the people in this pub?'," he told the court.

"I thought that's a bit weird. She then walked, turned and shouted 'You won't be using it anymore because it's going to be shut'."

Having reached her Volvo, Langley drove past the pub and round to Maidstone East railway station where she then left it unlocked with its hazard lights on and headed back on foot to the Hare and Hounds.

The court heard that having returned, Mr Bryant offered her the phone to speak to police.

“I told her to put the knife down but she wouldn't and she lunged to stab him in the torso…”

There were then just 24 seconds between her knocking it from his hand and the knife falling to the ground.

David Joyce was driving himself and his partner home from work at nearby Sessions House when he saw what he initially thought to be a "domestic" outside the pub.

He told the court that having seen the woman strike the male with her fist or hand, she then pulled out a large knife and lunged with it into his back.

Mr Joyce, who described himself as "horrified" when she then pulled the blade out, said he heard the man say "It wasn't like that", to which she replied: "I told you I would stab you."

Having got out of his car, Mr Joyce approached them.

"I tried speaking to her, saying 'For the love of god, what are you trying to do? You're going to kill him'. She replied 'I want him to die'," Mr Joyce told the jury.

He recalled hearing Langley mentioning rape and seeing Mr Bryant begin to lose consciousness.

"I told her to put the knife down but she wouldn't and she lunged to stab him in the torso," continued Mr Joyce.

"She withdrew the knife and held it high above her head facing me, I guess to engage."

He then described seeing the man collapse. "He died on his feet," added Mr Joyce. "I could see the colour go from his eyes while he was still standing."

He said someone then grabbed the woman's arm and the knife fell to the ground.

But Mr Joyce said he twice had to stop her from trying to leave, describing her as being in an "alcohol-driven rage".

"She kept making threats to kill, calling me all the obscenities possible. She kept saying 'Give me the knife, I'll f****** stab you too'," he told the court.

"And she kept saying she wanted him to die, she was glad she had done it. She had no remorse."

The fatal injury to Mr Bryant's chest would have stopped the heart "within seconds" and was "unsurvivable" without immediate surgery, said pathologist Dr Olaf Biedrzycki.

The blow itself required "at least moderate" force on a scale of mild, moderate and severe

One of the two back wounds was superficial while the other penetrated 7cm deep, had "chipped" two ribs and damaged a lung.

It was potentially fatal and required force "approaching severe, if not severe", he added.

Dr Biedrzycki agreed when cross-examined by Mr Cooper that even if the knife had not been removed, the outcome for Mr Bryant would not have been different.

The court also heard that subsequent blood tests revealed the landlord was more than four times the legal drink-drive limit when he died.

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But Dr Biedrzycki said although this indicated he would have been heavily intoxicated, the actual effect was dependent on a person's alcohol tolerance.

He added that while the reading was "pretty much in the fatal range", Mr Bryant was functioning, using his phone and having a conversation.

The trial continues.