The jury has gone out in the trial of four men charged with the murder of Bill Henham at a squat in Brighton on New Year’s Day two years ago.
The defendants are Gregory Hawley, Lamech Gordon-Carew, Alize Spence and Dushane Meikle.
They have been on trial at Maidstone Crown Court since November accused of killing the 24-year-old at a new year’s party in the squat in North Street, Brighton.
All four men deny murder.
Hawley, 29, formerly of Poynings Drive, Hove, and North Road, Brighton, was said to have been the ringleader.
Shortly after the murder, the jury was told that Hawley and 20-year-old Gordon-Carew, of Cheeseman Close, Hampton, Richmond Upon Thames, boasted to others about what they had done.
Spence, 18, of Makepeace Road, Northolt, London, was just 16 at the time of the murder.
Forensic evidence linked what had happened to Hawley, Gordon-Carew, Spence and 28-year-old Meikle, of Amberley Drive, Hove, and formerly of Belvedere Terrace, Brighton.
The court was told that Mr Henham was beaten in a room referred to as the “torture room” before his body was dragged away and dumped in an outside recess below.
James Mulholland, prosecuting, told the jury at the start of trial: “After the attack, those involved in the assault showed a significant degree of forensic awareness as they attempted to cover their tracks.
“An examination of the inner door of the first-floor room where Mr Henham had been injured revealed attempts had been made to clean it.
“The prosecution case is that each defendant either joined in the physical attack upon William Henham or deliberately helped or encouraged one or more of the others to do so.
“And that each, as they did so, intended that he be caused, at least, really serious injury and that they are all guilty of murder.”
