TWO Newport men stood trial today accused of murder, after a former soldier was allegedly brutally beaten to death after a night out.

Their alleged victim, Wesley Strawbridge, 25, died after suffering from multiple head injuries in what the prosecution described as "a vicious and sustained attack" outside Sainsbury on Shaftesbury Street, Newport, in the early hours of August 5, last year.

Christopher Wood, 18, of Trent Road, Bettws, an apprentice plumber, is alleged to have punched Mr Strawbridge to the ground in the incident which happened shortly before 4.30am. He was just 17 on the night of the incident.

Then, the court heard, his co-defendant Kyle Dolling, 20, of Welland Circle, Bettws, also an apprentice plumber, beat him repeatedly to the head with a tree branch.

Both denied charges of murder when they appeared before Newport Crown Court today.

But, the court heard, it was their alleged victim, Wesley Strawbridge who had initiated the physical violence earlier that night, when he headbutted Wood during an argument on Upper Dock Street.

John Jenkins, prosecuting, told the jury: "After the first punch Strawbridge fell to the ground.

"He never regained his feet."

The prosecution alleges that Dolling then beat his defenceless victim unconscious with a tree branch, before the defendants and their two companions ran off.

Mr Strawbridge was found by a couple driving past the scene, who called an ambulance. He could not be resusciated and was pronounced dead at 5.08am.

The defendants handed themselves in to police the following day.

The jury were also told that during the trial they would see CCTV footage of a previous incident in 2005, in which Dolling beat a man with a pool cue, during an assault with three other men.

Proceeding