A ROUGH sleeper was killed after being attacked three times by a gang in a row over army credentials, a court heard.

Martin Dines was found dead in the sixth floor stairwell of St Mary's Car Park in Colchester on a Monday morning in April.

Tests showed he had 73 separate external injuries mainly relating to his face, fractured ribs and a horrific injury to his genitals while an expert concluded he had also suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Heidi Kennedy, 47, Darren Miller, 46, and Mark Hartley, 32, are standing trial for his murder at Ipswich Crown Court where Simon Spence QC, prosecuting said all three had kicked, punched and stamped on him the night before he was found.

READ MORE: Man admits manslaughter ahead of car park murder trial

Mr Spence said: "Mr Dines was assaulted on three separate occasions by all three defendants and the combination of his injuries led to his death.

"The body was found in a stairwell on the morning on Monday, April 23 by a car park worker who had arrived at about 8am.

"He had been dead for some time and the area of the stairwell around his showed signs of a violent struggle taking place.

"A Post Mortem showed a huge number of injuries to his body mainly focused on the head and neck but also significant injuries to his genital area which were all inflicted by blunt force trauma."

Mr Spence said the first assault had taken place at 8.30pm on Sunday and had continued intermittently until 1.45am the next morning.

"They remained together throughout," said Mr Spence.

"They were together throughout the course of the evening, throughout the time they were in the car park and when they left Mr Dines dead or dying in the staircase they returned to Mark Hartley's flat where they were arrested together the following day."

Mr Spence said CCTV shown to the jury shows Hartley and Miller attacking Mr Dines outside Royal Bank of Scotland in Head Street where he used to beg.

The three are then filmed setting upon him in Crouch Street a few minutes later where Hartley accused Mr Dines of being "a false para". 

Later on Mr Dines went into the car park where he was eventually found dead, and the trio went in later but there is no CCTV of the final hours of his life.

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Kennedy, of Queen Elizabeth Way, Colchester, Miller, of no fixed address, and Hartley, of New Kiln Road, Colchester, all deny murder.

But Miller has admitted to Mr Dines' manslaughter while Kennedy has admitted an assault on a friend of Mr Dines - Lisa Peck - during the Crouch Street altercation.

The trial, which is expected to last five weeks, continues.