AN ELTHAM scaffolder "settled the score" with his brother by plunging a carving knife into his chest following their other brother's funeral, a court heard.

Mark Hayes, aged 53, is accused of murdering his brother Sean Hayes outside the defendant's home in Eltham Green Road in the early hours of April 27.

The 48-year-old was stabbed to death after the wake of his brother Tommy on April 26 where there had been friction and violence between family members, an Old Bailey jury heard.

Paramedics opened the chest cavity of the victim to massage his heart back to life, but to no avail, the court was told.

Prosecuting, Peter Wright said: "In the early hours of Saturday 27th April, Sean Hayes was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife by his brother Mark Hayes.

"He chose to settle the score with his brother with a knife and Sean Hayes paid for that with his life."

He described how "estranged" brothers Mark and Sean had carried their sibling’s casket together at the "fractious" funeral at Eltham crematorium before violence broke out.

He said: "It was a fractious affair. The brothers Mark and Sean did not get along and had not got along for some time.

"Some members of the family and their extended families had taken opposing sides in this dispute.

"Sean had not attended his father's funeral all those years ago and had become estranged from his parents."

The court heard how Mark, who denies murder, walked out of the service with his mother after Sean gave a eulogy to his brother Tommy, saying he was "like a father" to him.

The family split into two factions with an official wake at Charlton Park Rugby Club while the defendant and others went to the Edmund Halley pub in Burnt Ash Road.

Mr Wright said: "It was therefore friction between various members of the Hayes family and extended family that led to violence.

"Too much drink had been consumed by some, tempers were frayed and bearing in mind the events of the day and family history, emotions were running high."

He went on to say Sean and other family members went to Mark's house around 1.30am after his daughter Zoe claimed to have been assaulted by the defendant's wife Carla.

A fight broke out outside the property and Mark was captured on CCTV leaving the threshold, armed with a "formidable" knife.

Mr Wright said: "Mark, armed with the knife, approached brother Sean who had fallen to the ground and Mark then stabbed him in a downward thrust to his chest.

"This was no accident, it was deliberate."

He added that police officers followed a trail of blood spots to the house where a knife was found washed in the sink.

The trial continues.