A father-of two who regularly confronted drug dealers outside his home has been beaten to death on his doorstep.

Ian Tomlin, 46 was brutally attacked in a stairwell of his block of flats in Battersea, south London, after an altercation with a fellow resident - who is an alleged dealer - and a second man, witnesses said.

Mr Tomlin, who drove a waste disposal truck for Wandsworth Council, had previously expressed his concern at the illicit activities of a gang of men who hung around the building where his children live, and had a long-running grudge with the man who lives close by.

Speaking at the scene in Battersea yesterday, Mr Tominlin's grieving father Cecil Tomlin, 84, said his son shared his fears over people dealing drugs outside his ground floor flat two months ago.

"He has been afraid of them (drug dealers),” he said. "He don't smoke and they were selling drugs outside his house.

"He said 'Don't sell here!' He said 'Don't come here and sell drugs because I can't stand the scent of it'."