An elderly widow who was strangled with a lawnmower cord on an allotment had been wary of her alleged killer, who had a reputation among other growers for being threatening and volatile, a court has heard.

Lea Adri-Soejoko, 80, had a run-in with Rahim Mohammadi at an allotment holders’ meeting in Colindale, north-west London, months before he allegedly beat her up and then throttled her to stop her reporting his behaviour, which would have led to him losing his plot.

Mohammadi, 41, from Hackney, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of murdering her on 27 February last year.

The prosecutor John Price QC told jurors the victim was beaten up by Mohammadi and then killed to “stop her complaining”. He said the defendant was known by other plot holders for his “threatening, intimidating, aggressive and sometimes even physically violent behaviour”.

“He has shown himself very sensitive to any perceived slight, however minor, and is quickly aroused to behave in a way others have found frightening. He also is capable of recovering his poise just as quickly and sometimes even of apologising. He is temperamentally volatile,” Price said.

“It is not suggested that he has ever previously physically assaulted Mrs Adri-Soejoko. But there was one notorious occasion at an allotment association meeting held on the site in September 2016 when, having been told by her to shut up, he responded with a display of verbal aggression directed towards her, which shocked others and distressed her.”

Police at the scene where Lea Adri-Soejoko’s body was found on an allotment in Colindale. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

Price said there had been a “fraught atmosphere” on the allotment but outbursts by the defendant had been overlooked in the past. However, he would have known a serious physical assault upon Adri-Soejoko would not have been tolerated by allotment users, jurors heard.

Price said: “As he pondered what he had just done to her, Rahim Mohammadi will have feared that he would never again be allowed to return to the allotment and much else besides. And so he killed her.”

Jurors have heard that Adri-Soejoko’s family and friends became concerned after she failed to turn up for an allotment society meeting. In the early hours of the next morning, police followed the sound of her ringing phone and found her body inside a locked shed on the allotment used to store mowers. The starter cord of a lawnmower had been wrapped around her neck.

Price told jurors that Mohammadi spent five hours at the allotment on the day of the killing and was seen by two other plot holders. As a committee member, he had his own key to the mower shed, which had been locked from the outside with Adri-Soejoko’s body in it, with her keys in her pocket.

The defendant’s DNA was found on the part of lawnmower cord he allegedly used to strangle her.

The defendant denies murder. The trial continues.