Jurors in the trial of a man accused of murdering police community support officer Julia James have retraced her final steps.

Mrs James, 53, was found dead with head injuries in Akholt Wood, close to her home in Snowdown, Kent, with her dog by her side last April.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan QC took jurors to the house in Aylesham where Callum Wheeler, 22, was living at the time of the PCSO’s death.

It is alleged that Wheeler, who accepts he killed Mrs James but denies murder, used a metal railway jack to inflict fatal head injuries on the officer.

Ms Morgan QC showed jurors the home in Sunshine Corner Avenue, as well as a gap in the hedge that leads to Adisham Road that it is said Wheeler walked through both on 22 April and 27 April – the day of Mrs James’s death.

The group was then taken to the Aylesham and District Social Club in Ratling, where a camera on the front of the building recorded Wheeler walking past at 1.08pm on 27 April.

Ms Morgan told them: “It shows the defendant carrying a bag containing a metal railway jack.”

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Mrs James’s exact final movements were recorded by her smartwatch.

She walked along an uneven path at the edge of the field and onto a bridle path at the edge of Ackholt Wood to a place known for an abundance of butterflies, that she and her husband Paul called the Butterfly Point.

The jury walked along the edge of a field full of crops to that point, where Mrs James turned round and began to walk home.

They were shown the point where she then made a detour away from a wooded area, the prosecution claim because she had seen Wheeler in the woods and wanted to get away.

A yellow marker a short distance away showed the point where her body was found along a path next to a wheat field.

Jurors were also shown a building belonging to a local coach company, with a CCTV camera that captured an image of Mrs James from a distance while on her walk along the bridle path.

The group were shown locations near the end of Spinney Lane where Wheeler was captured on a bus dashcam on 27 April, and by a gamekeeper called Gavin Tucker who took a video clip and still photo of him the day after Mrs James’ death.

Earlier, the court heard Mrs James was ambushed and killed with a metal railway jack.

The prosecution told the court that two months earlier, Mrs James had seen a young man fitting Wheeler’s description in the woods where she later died.

Ms Morgan said: “On two occasions, she commented to her husband, Paul James, that she had passed a ‘really weird dude’ on the Ackholt Wood bridle path.

“The evidence suggests that her attacker was waiting in the woods for someone to attack and then ambushed her.”

The trial continues.

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