A former amateur boxer accused of killing a young man in a fight at an M25 service station told jurors he only wanted to "clear the air" after years of threats on the travellers' grapevine.

Hughie Saunders, 20, nicknamed Quhey, suffered catastrophic head injuries when he was hit with a plasterer's whisk at Cobham service station in Surrey on the afternoon of June 26.

Cousins Simon Baker, 22, and Mikey Coyle, 21, are on trial at the Old Bailey charged with the murder of Mr Saunders, from Stanford-le-Hope, Essex.

Jurors have seen CCTV footage of Baker with the whisk moments before Mr Saunders was beaten, in what the defendant claims was lawful self defence.

On the day of the fight, Mr Saunders had been returning home from a family wedding in Wales in a Ford Focus with a friend, aunt and uncle.

They decided to stop for refreshments around the time the defendants, travelling in a van loaded with building tools, also pulled into the forecourt.

As they made to drive off, Coyle and Baker recognised the victim and turned back, going the wrong way on a roundabout to park in front of the Ford Focus.

The pair took up a whisk and spade from their van and allegedly confronted Mr Saunders.

Giving evidence, Baker told jurors he had been threatened with a "hiding" by the victim and "barred" from going to traveller events in the past.

The builder said he was related to Mr Saunders, but had not seen him since they were young.

He told jurors: "Me and Quhey were relatively related to each other. I knew who he was.

"I just wanted to speak to Mr Saunders to clear the air from what I had been hearing.

"I heard that Quhey was supposed to be saying a few things about me and the travelling community.

"I thought I did not know why he was saying it. I just thought I would ask him why he was saying those things."

His barrister James Scobie QC asked when the issues had arisen, and Baker replied: "It was going on for a few years.

"Every now and again someone would tell me. It's all gone through the grapevine really."

Asked what type of things he was supposed to have said, Baker replied: "Just basically when he sees me he's going to give me a hiding."

The defendant told jurors the travelling community was "quite small", and while he talked to his brothers about the problem, he would not have mentioned it to his parents.

Baker, of Green Lane, Outwood, near Redhill, and Coyle, of Barnes, south west London, deny murder.

The trial continues.