Ex-girlfriend tells jury how defendant threatened

Donovan’s girlfriend at the time claimed in evidence that he “gloated” after he was alleged to have shot Mr Fox.

Daisy Avery, 21, said Donovan appeared to be impressed with himself. She also claimed he made threats to kill her and her family if she told anyone.

Giving evidence from behind screens, she said at the time she did not believe he was responsible for Mr Fox’s death and thought he was “talking nonsense”. “He came across like he was gloating about it, that he was impressed with what he said he had done,” she said. “But he still came across as anxious.

“He was speaking about dyeing his hair and that he had to change his appearance. He was making threats towards me. He said if I was to tell anybody what had happened he would go after my family. He would get my disabled sister and kill her in front of me and kill each member of my family, including my eldest daughter in front of me. Then he would go after our daughter and then he would kill me.”

Miss Avery said she tried to look for the gun in the garden at his mother’s Thanington home, but could not find it. “I asked him where it was but he wouldn’t tell me,” she said. “He said only his mum knew where it was. But I didn’t believe he had shot a man.”

She claimed Donovan exchanged the gun for drugs the day after the alleged murder. He dyed his hair purple and then shaved it off. They parted the next month.

On April 27 this year, Miss Avery read a Facebook link to a report on Kentonline of a body being found in woodland behind the retail park.