A CLOSE friend of a ‘gentle giant’ has confronted the man who is accused of murdering him in a dramatic courtroom exchange.

Stuart Hodgkin is on trial for the murder of Good Samaritan Adrian Munday, who took him into his home, but has tried to shift the blame on to witness Tracie Gunn.

She denounced him as a killer as she gave evidence of how he had taken advantage of Mr Munday, who suffered brain injuries at birth and had learning disabilities and suspected schizophrenia.

Hodgkin, aged 40, whose family home is at Basingstoke, but was living at Stockbridge Road, Winchester, denies murder.

The prosecution allege he was homeless and penniless when he met 51-year-old Adrian in September last year.

They say Hodgkin exploited Adrian’s vulnerability, took over his life, moved into his home in Newton Abbot, and spent all his money before beating him to death when it ran out.

He allegedly tried to cover up the murder by lighting a fire over the body at Adrian’s home in Wain Lane, Newton Abbot on the night of October 4 last year and fleeing back to Hampshire in the middle of the night.

Hodgkin says he left Adrian alive and well but has lodged a defence statement in which he claims Miss Gunn had been leeching off Adrian and had made threats to have him beaten up two weeks before the killing.

Miss Gunn, who suffers from bi-polar disorder, said she met Adrian, who she knew by his second name of Hugo, when they were living in the same supervised accommodation at Keyberry Road, Newton Abbot.

She said they became close friends and often saw each other after they each moved into their own independent accommodation. In Adrian’s case, the first time he had lived on his own was when he moved into Wain Lane in June 2015.

She said: ’He was 100 per cent capable of managing his life. He had a huge family who absolutely adored him and lots of friends. He was such a gentleman, kind, generous and amazing.’

She said she met Hodgkin for the first and only time when Adrian arrived with him at the Bell Inn on September 21 and she took an instant dislike to him because she believed he was exploiting her friend’s kindness and vulnerability.

She said they went back to her home nearby and smoked cannabis but she ordered Hodgkin out when he dangled Adrian’s keys in front of her face, apparently boasting that he had control of his home.

Miss Gunn, aged 49, became upset as Hodgkin’s barrister Mr Paul Dunkels, QC, when he suggested to her that it was she who was exploiting Adrian.

He asked her if she had supplied him with class A drugs, borrowed money off him, and made threats to have him beaten up.

She said: ’It is bulls**t. It is a load of rubbish. I was not taking advantage of him. We both enjoyed a good quality of life. He just wanted to chill out, play his games and be a loving person.

’That’s what he was like. If he met a homeless person, he would ask him to stay.’

She looked at Hodgkin in the dock and said: ’There is no doubt who was taking advantage of my friend, who was a gentle giant and absolutely gorgeous, and who killed him.

’This is the hardest part for me. He killed one of my best friends and has implicated me in the murder. Hugo was like a tree for me. He was my rock.’

The trial continues.