A GUEST at a wedding party suffered fatal injuries after he was struck about the head like “a boxer hitting a punchball”, a jury was told.

Jason Halling knocked 47-year-old Kevin Smith down on a balcony and used a patio chair as a weapon, it was alleged.

He got on top of the Bromyard businessman and punched him repeatedly with both fists, Worcester Crown Court was told this week.

Mr Smith – whose partner and daughter were among 100 people at the party – was rushed to hospital but died from bleeding in the brain two days later.

Halling, aged 29, of Firs Orchard, Bromyard, denies murder.

Violence broke out at Upper Sapey Golf Club on New Year’s Day last year, said Tim Raggatt QC, prosecuting.

Both men were at the party to celebrate the wedding of Gemma Halling, the defendant’s sister, and Ryan Smith, the victim’s nephew, who had married in Barbados a few weeks earlier.

Mr Raggatt added: “He used violence to such a degree, and with such ferocity, that by the time it ended Mr Smith was completely helpless, probably unconscious, with damage to his brain that led to death.”

16-year-old Amy Crisp told the jury: "Jason was kneeling over him. I saw Jason hitting Kevin about five or six times towards his face or head with clenched fists."

Miss Crisp shouted to alert other partygoers before seeing three or four people "dragging" Halling off the victim.

The victim's partner Laura Davies was also on the balcony when the men first exchanged words.

She said Mr Smith told Halling he didn't like him and swore.

Another witness, Wayne Birch, said he saw the defendant kneeling on Mr Smith shoulders as he lay on the floor and punching him in the face.

Halling was arrested at about 9am and claimed to police that Mr Smith abused him verbally on the balcony and grabbed him round the neck. He insisted he only hit the victim twice with hard punches that knocked him down. But Mr Raggatt, prosecuting, said: “That version cannot be true. The victim was battered into a helpless state.”

The victim’s daughter Faith Earl, a 22-year-old student, said: “He just wasn’t moving. He was making a gurgling noise. They tried to put him in a chair but he was too limp.”

She accompanied him in an ambulance to hospital in Hereford, but his eyes were closed and he never spoke again.

The trial continues.