A JURY has heard about the moment two men started beating up an allegedly defenceless man who later died in hospital.

Shankar Kathirgamanathan, 24, was left unconscious and bleeding heavily on a footpath in Ashford after a frenzied minute-long attack last April.

He died two weeks later after failing to recover from severe head injuries, which included a fractured skull and brain trauma.

Salvarajah Jeyakumar, a friend of Mr Kathirgamanathan, was with him when Tony Pile and James Rossiter set upon him with a series of forceful punches, a jury at Maidstone Crown Court was told.

Mr Jeyakumar said: "I don't know why it happened. We didn't say anything or do anything," he told the court through an interpreter. "I was very frightened.

"After the first male pushed him, then the beatings began. Both men were beating him with their bare hands 15 to 18 times.

"He was trying to escape. The men were very close to him and he tried to push past but he wasn't able to."

As he stood in the witness box for almost an hour, Mr Jeyakumar never turned once to look at the two defendants sitting in the dock just a few feet away.

Both Pile, 19, and Rossiter, 22, deny murdering Mr Kathirgamanathan, 24, of Cleves Way, Singleton, Ashford, who died in the William Harvey Hospital from severe head injuries in May last year.

They have, however, admitted being involved in an incident on April 22, close to the Victoria Road railway footbridge.

The two accused sat staring blankly ahead or at the floor, as Mr Jeyakumar told of the series of punches and kicks which knocked his friend to the floor.

Family and friends of both defendants and the victim sat listening to the evidence on the other side of the courtroom.

Mr Jeyakumar watched the attack from just a few feet away, telling the jury Mr Kathirgamanathan was kicked in the face with some force as he lay motionless on the ground.

He denied the claims of Robert Barraclough QC, for Rossiter, that the victim had laughed as his client tripped on a step and then made a rude hand gesture, before the fighting began.

Earlier witness Daniel Biddle told the jury how he watched Pile, of Baileys Field, South Ashford, jump and stamp with both feet on Mr Kathirgamanathan's limp body following a number of violent kicks and punches.

He said the victim was hit, by both men, like a football. Before the attack, one of the men was heard to shout out 'f****** Paki'.

Mr Biddle and friend, William Hollis, were running away across the footbridge after being approached by Rossiter and Pile seconds earlier, who demanded money.

Rossiter, of Loudon Path, Godinton Park, threw a punch at Mr Biddle, but did not connect, when he refused to hand over his mobile phone.

He later told police the names of both men, having known of them through school.

The court also heard from Dean Holness, who was verbally abused by Rossiter, on the same day as the attack, because he wanted to become a police officer.

The abuse came in The Swan pub where the two accused drank heavily during the afternoon. Mr Holness, who had known both men for some 10 years, was there, with best friend Gregg Pile, Tony's brother.

"He (Rossiter) threatened that if he saw me out on the street he would get me. He called me names.

"I didn't say anything, I was a bit shocked by it."

The trial continues.