One of four men on trial for murder was "raging" when he attacked a homeless, disabled barrister over a missing stash of cocaine.

Former trainee financial advisor Sobantu Sibanda has told a jury how he lashed out at 51-year-old Guy Malbec using some of the victim's own possessions, including a wooden gavel and a laptop, and smashed up sentimental belongings.

Canterbury Crown Court heard the 27-year-old wrongly believed Mr Malbec had stolen his drug supply while they were living rough in adjacent tents on the lower ground floor of the city's Castle Street car park.

Sibanda, the son of a university lecturer and a social worker, had bought the cocaine for £800, using money he saved from working with a friend on a construction job, and planned to sell it on for £1,200.

He said he saw it as his "way out" of his own homeless situation, having once enjoyed a party lifestyle while working in London's financial sector earning £4,000 a month.

But, having discovered the drug had disappeared from a makeshift pillow in his tent in the early hours of Easter Sunday, April 9, he accused Mr Malbec of thieving it as he believed he had been the only person at the tent site that day.

The confrontation soon turned to violence and Sibanda told the jury he punched and slapped Mr Malbec, struck him with the gavel and threw the laptop at his head. He also damaged a Tag Heuer watch and a chess set given to the victim by his grandfather.

But he maintained the violent confrontation ended with him apologising, shaking Mr Malbec's hand and, although cut, bruised and bleeding, he was alive when he (Sibanda) left the car park.

Mr Malbec, who qualified as a barrister in the late 1990s but never practised, died within a few hours of what the prosecution allege was a "brutal and sustained" attack on a "vulnerable and outnumbered" man.

He suffered severe head and facial injuries, including a broken nose and fractured eye socket, as well as four fractured ribs.

His alleged murderers took his phone and it was not until Easter Monday that his "bloodied and battered" body was discovered by police. He was laying face down inside a vomit-stained sleeping bag pulled tight around his face and within a partially-zipped tent.

Mr Malbec, who relied on a wheelchair due to a leg injury he sustained while living in Israel, had suffered a fatal brain injury. Cause of death was later recorded as sustained blunt force trauma.

He had ended up sleeping rough after he returned from Israel on Boxing Day last year and was refused benefits due to his long-term absence abroad.

The prosecution allege Sibanda, who had previously lived with his parents in Albert Street, Whitstable, was the main perpetrator of the violence meted out in the car park.

Also in the dock are Airidas Sakalauskas, 22, of Old Dover Road, Canterbury, Gavin Houghton, 50, also of Old Dover Road, and 51-year-old Keith Hall, of Athelstan Road, Thanington, who are accused of "participating in or encouraging" the hour-long assault.

Sibanda has admitted manslaughter but denies murder. Sakalauskas, Houghton and Hall all deny murder and manslaughter.

Mr Malbec and his alleged attackers all met through the Catching Lives homeless charity in the city. Houghton, a chef, was also sharing Sibanda's tent at the time.

Sibanda described Mr Malbec as being "quite intriguing and a cool guy", and "over the moon" when invited by him to use the empty tent next-door.

But the court heard how violence erupted just a few weeks later when Sibanda, having visited Whitstable and then two pubs in Canterbury, returned to his tent at about 4.30am on April 9 and discovered his cocaine, which he had bought three days earlier, was missing.

Appearing visibly upset at times as he gave evidence, Sibanda said: "I could just feel myself panicking, that I have lost this (cocaine) and I just assumed Guy had gone in there and taken it or knew something about it not being there.

"He didn't know what I was talking about. I think I had already made my mind up that he either knew where it was or he had taken it.

"I started picking up some stuff and throwing around these crates. He had crates of things just everywhere, outside the tent. I think I just wanted to intimidate him into telling me what had happened.

"I said 'Stop lying to me. Be honest, where is it?' He was just rambling. I thought he was rambling because he was lying and not being straight with me, and that p****** me off even more.

"He was getting me more and more agitated that he was lying to me and wouldn't give me a straight answer."

Sibanda, who emigrated from Zimbabwe to the UK with his family when he was four, said he did not know until he saw the car park CCTV footage seized by police that Sakalauskas and a woman had been to his tent at about 2.45am that day.

Sibanda described himself as feeling angry as his victim "waffled and blabbered". Having been pushed, Mr Malbec fell backwards onto his tent. He got back to his feet and picked up a pole and a tent spike.

Sibanda agreed his victim was simply defending himself but told the jury: "I have just not reacted well to that at all. I think I kept throwing stuff at him… I just kept saying to him 'You are going to steal from me, now lie about it and now draw these weapons on me'.

"I was fuming, I just couldn't calm down. I was just thinking 'Why is he lying to me?' I had only tried to help him out and now he was trying to steal out of my tent. I think because of what that (the cocaine) meant for me to get out of that situation, I was just fuming and I didn't calm down.

"I walked towards him and just started hitting him with my fist in the face. I think he has fallen back and I just hit him a number of times. The first couple were really, really hard.

"I was fuming. I was just raging and I just couldn't believe he had stolen from me. Everytime he says he hasn't got it, it just p***es me off even more.

"I hit him a few times in the face with my fist initially and then at one point I just smashed my forearm and I think I hit him above the eye. I hit him again with my elbow to his nose.

"I just kept punching him in the face and saying 'Where are my drugs? Stop lying to me.'...I was just so fixated on 'He's got it, he knows, he is taking the p*** out of me', I just feel so horrible because he obviously wasn't.

"He was probably thinking 'What the f*** is going on?' and I just couldn't see that. I was just carrying on."

Asked about any objects he used to assault Mr Malbec, Sibanda continued: "I hit him a few times and we ended up on the ground. He was on his back and kicking out. I sat on top of him and I saw this judge’s gavel that he had and I just took it and hit him in the head a few times.

"I thought I held it by the stem but to be honest I don't remember. I just remember hitting him a few times....I had this laptop in my hand and he was saying I could sell it to make up for the loss but I opened it and the screen was smashed. Again, I thought 'He is taking the p***.'

"I threw it on the floor in anger and it split into two pieces. I think I started stamping on one of the bits....I just grabbed it and launched it at him. I don't know if he was on his knees or sitting down but I just grabbed it and threw it at him pretty hard."

The court has heard that marks to Mr Malbec's scalp were consistent with being hit by both the gavel and the laptop. However, a pathologist said it was not known what blow or even weapon had caused the fatal injury. Tests revealed no traces of cocaine.

The attack itself was described as "stop and start", with some of it captured on CCTV. Sibanda told the jury that Houghton and Hall, who had initially been asleep in his tent, had tried to calm him down and pull him away.

He also explained how Mr Malbec had offered him a Tag Heuer watch to sell but he thought it was fake and smashed it against a wall. "I think he started crying, saying his grandad gave it to him," he told the jury.

"I just didn't give a f*** at the time and I have thrown the watch against the wall and it has smashed into pieces. I think I may have stamped on the face. I was just fuming and thinking 'This guy is taking the p***'.

"But he wasn't, he was obviously panicking and thinking 'What's going on? How do I get out of this situation?'"

The court heard Sibanda then smashed a piece of pottery and the chessboard, prompting Mr Malbec to say he would compensate him by calling his ex-wife for money.

‘I thought he would have a couple of stitches but I didn't think it was serious...’

Sibanda said that "the situation calmed down" and they even shook hands. But he told the court that although Mr Malbec's eye was turning black and swelling up, his nose bleeding, and his face cut, he did not think his injuries were serious.

Asked if he would have called an ambulance if he had known, he told the jury: "I like to think so standing here now but at the time I was just thinking so selfishly.

"I thought the swelling on the eye wasn't something, like, crazy. The broken nose wasn't something crazy. Yes, he was in a bad way but I thought he would be all right.

"I didn't think I had caused what happened to his brain and all these internal injuries but I did. I just thought this was all going to be sorted...I thought he would have a couple of stitches but I didn't think it was serious. I just thought he looked like he had got beat up.

"I confirmed with him to meet up the next day and sort it out and I said sorry for breaking his nose."

Asked if Mr Malbec replied, Sibanda said "Not really". He and his three co-accused left the car park just before 6.30am, with CCTV recording the victim's last movement inside the tent just 28 minutes later.

Sibanda told the court the news that Mr Malbec had died was broken to him by Sakalauskas after he and Houghton had returned to the car park that afternoon.

"He just said 'He's dead. You killed him.'. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing," Sibanda told the jury.

He then went to the tent himself and looked inside. "I called his name a few times...I have gone to nudge him with my feet and he was just heavy. I just knew he was dead. There was no response," Sibanda explained.

The court previously heard how Sibanda, Houghton and Sakalauskas then carried out an "extensive clear-up" of the scene, while Hall deleted messages and call logs between himself and Houghton from his phone.

Sibanda told the jury Sakalauskas was "insistent and pushy" about clearing up immediately

All four defendants have admitted perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.