A disabled barrister beaten to death while sleeping rough in a car park may have been "pummelled" to the head with a gavel, a pathologist has told a jury.

Guy Malbec suffered severe head and facial injuries, including a significant bleed between his brain and his skull, as well as a fractured left eye socket, broken nose and four fractured ribs in the alleged attack by four men.

The 51-year-old's "battered and bloodied" body was discovered in a corner on the lower ground floor of Castle Street car park in Canterbury by police on Easter Monday (April 10) - almost 24 hours after the fatal assault.

He was laying face down within a partially-zipped tent and inside a sleeping bag pulled tight around his face. The cause of death was later given as sustained blunt force trauma.

It is alleged that those responsible - Sobantu Sibanda, 27, of Albert Street, Whitstable, 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 - took part in a "brutal and sustained" attack on the "vulnerable and outnumbered" Mr Malbec.

As well as having to often rely on a wheelchair due to a leg injury he sustained while previously living in Israel, the slim-built former law student was just 5ft 7in and weighed a little under 8st 5lbs.

The gavel, the sort used by American judges, and an Inspiron laptop were among the bloodstained items recovered by police after his tragic death.

Marks on the victim's scalp were consistent with them having both been used as weapons.

A jury at Canterbury Crown Court was this week told that despite being lightweight and with a short handle, the wooden legal tool could still have been used to "smash" into Mr Malbec's head.

Giving evidence about the numerous injuries the victim suffered, Home Office pathologist Dr Olaf Biedrzycki said they did not include any skull fractures.

But explaining how the gavel may have been used in the attack, he said: "The gavel weighs absolutely nothing and it is very hard to inflict a lot of trauma with it.

"However, if pummelled onto the scalp, it's possibly caused some of the head injuries, but only if used in a way where it's smashed down rather than used as Your Honour might.

"I would say, having felt how light it is, the fact you could use it to strike someone to the top of the head, it's unlikely to cause any major injury.

"But if you hold the (circular) top part of it in your hand and use it to pummel down on someone's head with some weight behind you I think, and depending on the angle, it could well have caused some of those injuries."

Dr Biedrzycki also told the court that linear marks found on the deceased's head matched a "grill" area at the bottom of the laptop, and that there was bruising to the "whole" left side of his scalp.

An injury to his right index finger was typical, added the pathologist, of when someone uses their hand to protect their head, while his left rib fractures were consistent with being punched, kicked or stamped on.

But he said it was impossible to know what blow or weapon had caused the subdural hematoma, which would have required "pretty immediate" medical intervention to be survivable.

"The critical symptom of any significant injury on the brain is vomiting, and we have ample evidence of vomiting - by his head, on the sleeping bag, on three bits of clothing and in his airways," explained Dr Biedrzycki.

"The crux here is that he sustained his injuries, they haven't completely incapacitated him at the time but have started a bleed on the brain and as that bleed got bigger and bigger he would have been vomiting.

"In the moment he starts to lose consciousness he is at risk of the vomit getting into his airways, and that's what happened. The brain injury has caused the airways problem."

Concluding there was "no doubt" Mr Malbec was the victim of a sustained, third party, blunt force trauma assault to his head and face, Dr Biedrzycki continued: "It is always very difficult to comment on survivability. These injuries are exquisitely time-critical.

"You have to get to the brain before the brain gets really swollen because once that's happened, even if you let all the blood out, some irreversible brain damage would be caused.

"With the deceased, his brain wasn't that swollen but he would need pretty immediate transfer, not just to any hospital but a hospital with a neuro facility."

Sibanda, Sakalauskas, Houghton and Hall all deny murder.

At the start of their trial, Caroline Carberry KC told how Mr Malbec, who qualified as a barrister in 1998 but never practised, had only been sleeping in the car park for two to three weeks.

Described as "very articulate, educated and personable", he had ended up living rough as a result of being denied benefits on his return to the UK from Tel Aviv on Boxing Day last year.

Sibanda, also known as Talent, and Houghton, who had worked as a chef at The Pound in the city, were his "neighbours", sharing an adjacent tent, and all five men knew each other, having accessed the Catching Lives homeless charity.

It is alleged Sibanda meted out much of the violence - some of which was captured on CCTV - over the course of an hour while his three co-accused "participated or supported", said Ms Carberry.

Hall later described Sibanda to police as "absolutely raging", and he likened Mr Malbec's injuries to those seen "in the 10th round of a Rocky film".

Mr Malbec, who also used the name Levy, had in fact been able to retreat into the tent where his body was eventually found by police. But as he had lay dying, his assailants left, stealing his phone and bank card.

CCTV also showed the moment Sibanda, Sakalauskas and Houghton are alleged to have returned to carry out "an extensive clear-up" of the scene, placing as many as 80 items, including bloodstained bedding and clothing, as well as the gavel, into black binbags and then dumping them in residential bins in nearby Gas Street.

The jury has heard they have admitted perverting the course of justice, as has Hall in respect of his deletion of text messages and call logs between himself and Houghton.

The trial continues.