A 62-year-old man accused of killing his partner at his Tunbridge Wells home has appeared in court.

Keith Solly was due to enter a plea to murdering grandmother Yvonne Tapp, 58, whose body was recovered from his flat in Lady’s Gift Road on December 5.

But the charge was not put to him at Maidstone Crown Court this morning after prosecutor Sally O’Neill QC said there were still pathology and psychiatric matters to be resolved.

Judge Jeremy Carey was previously told the cause of death was not “definitively known”, but it was possibly asphyxia.

Miss O’Neill said: “Until the pathology is in order, nothing is going to happen.”

Solly was accompanied in the dock by two nurses from the Trevor Gibbens Unit at Maidstone Hospital, to where he has been remanded.

Judge Carey agreed to move the trial date back a week to June 8, but said it was imperative it was met.

He told Solly: “This is an important hearing to sort out how your case is to be prepared for your trial.

“The intention is we get your trial on as soon as reasonable practical. It is in everyone’s interests we do that.”