A woman who was living in a flat below a retired clergyman on the night he was allegedly murdered told a court how she heard a loud bang - and then silence.

Wheelchair-bound Gertrude Wheelwright, 81, lived in a basement flat beneath the Rev Ronald Glazebrook's home in Dane Road, St Leonards, on the night he died.

She told Lewes Crown Court yesterday: "The clock struck 12 and I went to bed.

"I then went to the bathroom and heard a terrible loud bang and there was no noise again.

"It was quiet."

Oxford-educated Rev Glazebrook's naked body was allegedly found in his bath, with his head submerged under the water and his feet hanging out by the taps.

Christopher Hunnisett, 18, formerly of Coventry Road, St Leonards, denies murdering the elderly vicar.

He and Jason Groves, 18, of Stonehouse Drive, St Leonards, have both admitted preventing lawful burial.

On the third day of Hunnisett's trial yesterday Mrs Wheelwright's daughter Gail Walsh, who lived with her mother, told the court how Rev Glazebrook appeared to be frightened of Hunnisett, whom he had taken in as a lodger.

She said: "I was under the impression that the Reverend was scared of Christopher."

"I heard Christopher raise his voice several times to the Reverend.

"There were a few times when he made excessive noise and I asked him not to make so much noise.

"The Reverend just stood there and didn't say anything."

She told the jury Hunnisett, who is alleged to have drowned Mr Glazebrook before hacking his body apart and burying it in two separate spots, appeared "in a bit of a state" in the days that followed the clergyman's disappearance in April last year.

She said: "Christopher's eyes were all bloodshot and he looked in a bit of a state.

"His mouth looked as if he had been kissing someone."

The Rev Michael Harper, Parish Priest at Christ Church in London Road, St Leonards, told the court how the alarm was raised after Mr Glazebrook failed to attend Sunday service at the church where he regularly helped out.

He said: "Mr Glazebrook occasionally wouldn't turn up for something because he had made a mistake in his diary.

"I could see in the last few months he was beginning to age."

Mr Harper called Mr Glazebrook the next day and again in those that followed, but there was no answer.

He described Mr Glazebrook as "very pleasant, very well educated, interesting to talk to, with lots of interests outside theology and the church.

"A man of huge ability."

He added he was a "very confidential person."

The court heard how Mr Harper had known Hunnisett for a few years because Hunnisett attended Christ Church Primary and had been an altar server at the church.

Groves has told the court how he helped his former schoolfriend bury the limbs and head of Mr Glazebrook in woodland before dumping his torso beside a busy road.

The case continues.