Two brothers beat a man to death outside a pub after the man's friend called one of them “gay”, a court heard.

James and Peter Weeks allegedly attacked Ian O’Mahoney and Barry Tatan outside the White Hart pub in Eltham on August 28 last year.

The brothers are said to have targeted Mr Tatan, 48, after he drunkenly insulted them in another pub earlier that evening, and when Mr O’Mahoney, 49, attempted to help, they turned their attention to him.

Prosecuting at the Old Bailey, Tom Kark QC told jurors: "When Ian O'Mahoney tried to help his mate Barry, who was getting a beating from one of the brothers, the other Weeks brother grabbed him by the shoulders and, swinging him around, threw him to the floor.

"So forceful was that swing that it literally lifted Ian's feet off the ground and his head hit the hard pavement with a resounding thud which was audible to those nearby.”

It was said Mr Tatan had suggested that James Weeks, who neither man knew, was gay. This caused the Weeks brothers to decide to “teach him a lesson”.

"Neither Barry nor Ian put up a fight. Neither was being aggressive and the Weeks brothers had no cause to launch their attack other than the apparent provocation of the words of Barry Tatan earlier in the evening."

Although able to stagger back to the home he and Mr Tatan shared, Mr O'Mahoney was fatally wounded as the blow had caused a bleed on his brain, Mr Kark told the court.

He was alive the next morning when Mr Tatan found him in the hallway but he did not know how gravely injured his friend was, so when his sons Barry and Jordan arrived, they left him, unconscious in the hallway, while they went to a pub.

By the time he returned later that morning, Mr O'Mahoney had died from a brain haemorrhage.

Giving evidence, Mr Tatan, who conceded he suffers from long-standing memory problems and blackouts, said he could remember little about the evening, including the attack. 

Holding back tears, Mr Tatan said he did not remember Mr O'Mahoney "coughing and gurgling" as he lay on the floor before he went out with his sons, and that if he knew he had received a bang to the head, he would have called for an ambulance earlier.

Peter Weeks, 29, of no fixed address, is charged alongside his brother with manslaughter in that they unlawfully killed Mr O'Mahoney, which they deny.

James Weeks, 27, of Crayford, also pleaded not guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm, a charge Peter Weeks admitted at a hearing last month.

Mr Kark said: "They were jointly responsible for his death by reason of their unlawful and cowardly assault, provoked as it was by a stupid comment Barry had made."

The trial continues.