A homeless man was bludgeoned to death with a metal railing following a row with fellow street drinkers, a court was told.

Michael Clark and Edward Phillips are alleged to have launched a “severe” and “sustained” attack on Lea Williams just metres from dog walkers and joggers on Hove seafront, possibly as he slept.

The brutal attack is thought to have lasted at least five minutes.

Lewes Crown Court was told Williams, 45, had lived on the streets of Brighton and Hove since the summer of 2012 and slept inside an alcove on the pitch and putt course along Kingsway.

Dianne Chan, prosecuting, told how Mr Williams had been drinking with friends – including the defendants - in Hove’s Westbourne Gardens on the afternoon of February 8 this year when an argument broke out.

Lauren Bishop, a fellow street drinker and then partner of Phillips, reacted angrily and “verbally and physically” abused Mr Williams, Ms Chan added.

Mr Williams walked away before 36-year-old Bishop was heard to shout: “It’s not over, I’m going to have you.”

The jury heard Mr Williams made his way back to his alcove – nicknamed the bat cave– around 4.30pm. Minutes later, Clark, 51, and Phillips, 49, are said to have followed him.

A resident, who was waiting at a bus stop in Kingsway, described seeing two men striding across the putting green.

Moments later, she saw them “kneeling down” at the entrance to the alcove. She described how one of them was raising his arms in the air before bringing them down in a “chopping wood movement”.

Unaware at the time of anything suspicious, she later told police it continued for the next five minutes before she caught her bus.

In the hours following the attack, Phillips was seen washing down his shoes and then later – along with Clark – disappearing towards the sea carrying items, said Ms Chan.

However, it wasn’t until the Monday (February 11) that homeless support workers discovered Mr Williams’ body.

They were carrying out their usual rounds which included dropping off food at his alcove, when they noticed a pile of untouched sandwiches.

Concerned, they went closer and lifted the duvet to find Mr Williams’ battered corpse. Ms Chan said investigators never recovered a murder weapon, but it is believed to have been a piece of seafront railing which Williams kept for security.

Officers found specs of pale green paint on his body and in the alcove which matched the colour used on the distinctive seafront railings Ms Chan told the jury the attack was “extremely severe” and would have been “sustained”. Along with a fractured skull, she said the front of his face had “caved in”.

She added that the injuries were consistent with between 20 to 30 blows from a “blunt instrument”. Mr Williams’ position and lack of defence wounds on his arms also indicated he was either asleep at the time of the attack or “very quickly incapacitated”.

The jury heard Clark’s prescription glasses were later found on a wall nearby with specs of Mr Williams’ blood. Bishop is also said to have confided with a friend that “she and others” had killed Mr Williams.

Clark and Phillips, who both gave their address in court as HMP Lewes, are charged with murder while Bishop, of HMP Bronzefield, is charged with conspiracy to murder. The trial continues.